STEUBENVILLE – The Franciscan men's lacrosse team fell to visiting Adrian College 16-7 in the final home game before spring break for the Barons on Saturday.
 
Junior Jonathan Lee got the Barons on the board first with his first goal of the season just 2:27 into action but the Bulldogs responded with three-straight goals to take the lead, 3-1. After Lee won the faceoff after Adrian's third goal and picked up the ground ball, the Barons got to work. Junior Steve Smith set a nice pick and senior Dan McCartney used it to get around a pair of defenders and shot from 15-yards out to trim the lead to 3-2 with 7:12 to play in the first. After another pair of Bulldog goals, Lee found the back of the net for the second time after a Barons' successful clear to get Franciscan to within two again, 5-3.
 
Adrian used a 7-0 run beginning in the final two minutes of the first through the first two and half minutes of the third quarter to open up a 12-3 lead.
 
Junior Michael Araps halted the run with his third goal of the season as sophomore Nicholas Brierley founds Araps with an open net shot to end the Barons' scoring drought. After winning the next faceoff, the Barons drew a penalty to get their first man-up advantage of the game. With 15 seconds left in the penalty, Muraski found Lee for the first back-to-back goals for Franciscan. Unfortunately, the Barons couldn't get a run together as the Bulldogs answered with a a goal from Grant Nesbitt with 9:04 left in the third to push their lead to 13-5. Nesbit found the back of the net against just over found minutes later to give Adrian a 14-5 lead with 4:57 left in the quarter.
 
Lee ended the quarter with his third goal with 47 second left as McCartney picked up the ground ball off his caused turnover and got it to Lee in front of the net.
 
Sophomore Jerome Harkins opened the fourth quarter for the Barons with his first goal of the game to cut the lead won to 14-7, but the Bulldogs scored the game's final two goals in a relatively low scoring quarter to seal the 16-7 win.
 
Lee finished with a season -high four goals while McCartney chipped in a goal and two assists. Harkins finished the day with a team-best 13 ground balls and caused six turnovers. Harkins now how 62 career caused turnovers which breaks the Barons career CT record, previously at 57.
 
Sophomore Grant McKeown made 17 saves for the Barons between the pipes.
 
Franciscan returns to action when the Barons travel to Pfeiffer on Tuesday for a 7:00 pm contest in Misenheimer, NC to kick off spring break.