DANVILLE, Va. – The Franciscan men's lacrosse team wrapped up its spring break trip at Averett on Friday afternoon. The Barons dropped a close contest, 7-3.
 
The Cougars got out to an early 1-0 lead after a goal from Parker Corbett gave Averett the lead with 9:22 to go in the first. With 7:03 to play, a shot from Joonas Mattila hit the post and sophomore goalie Grant McKeown picked up the ground ball and kicked off the successful clear. Junior Jonathan Lee got the ball to freshman Gavin Brown who buried his first goal of the year to tie the game at 1-1 with 6:16 to play.
 
The 1-1 score would hold for the rest of the quarter before the Cougars used a 2-0 second to take a slim 3-1 lead into halftime.
 
Averett opened the third with three-straight goals to take a 6-1 lead with 5:44 to play in the quarter. With 4:18 left, sophomore William Muraski caused a turnover and after a successful clear, finished off the play with his first goal of the season thanks to an assist from junior Michael Araps. Just 47 seconds after Muraski's goal, Ballard Earley put the hosts up 7-2 with his second goal of the season.
 
Franciscan scored the only goal of the fourth quarter as senior Dan McCartney got an assist from Muraski and scored his 14^th goal of the year with 10:07 to play.
 
McKeown made three saves in the final 10 minutes of action and the score held 7-3 in favor of Averett. For the game, the sophomore made 13 saves.
 
Lee won 6-of-14 face offs while sophomore Jerome Harkins picked up a team-best nine ground balls. Muraski finished the day with a goal, an assist, seven ground balls and five caused turnovers.
 
Franciscan returns to Memorial Field on Wednesday as the Barons host Muskingum at 4:00 pm.