The Misericordia men's lacrosse team rallied in the second half, Thursday afternoon, to defeat St. John Fisher, 9-8, in Clearwater, Florida. MU improves to 4-0 this season as they hand the Cardinals their first loss.

Matthew Beck helped fuel the comeback for the Cougars after entering the game in the net in the second half. After St. John Fisher scored to take a 7-4 lead, Beck entered for the final 27:44 and made 10 saves, while allowing just one goal.

Chris Fleming led the Cougars on offense, scoring five goals on just six shots. Jake Kocovsky added two goals and Paul Hanrahan tallied a goal and an assist.

Patrick Newins caused five turnovers and picked up three ground balls on the defensive side of the field for Misericordia.

The Cardinals took a 1-0 lead less than a minute into the game and added two more in the next 10 minutes to take a 3-0 lead. Kocovsky was able to get the Cougars on the board with 3:41 remaining in the first period before Fleming scored with 21 seconds left to cut their deficit to one entering the second stanza.

St. John Fisher extended their lead back up to three, but Fleming and Kocovsky each added another goal before the half. Fleming scored with 3:46 remaining and Kocovsky found the back of the net with less than 30 seconds to go before the break.

After the Cardinals scored the first goal of the second half, Misericordia answered with five unanswered goals. Fleming scored the his third of the game off an assist by Patrick Kellish before Hanrahan got into the scoring column to cut the deficit to one with 9:51 to go in the third period. Fleming then added his fourth and fifth goals of the game to tie and take the lead for the first time in the game.

Patrick Luzzi added a much needed insurance goal off an assist from Hanrahan to begin the fourth period to conclude the run for the Cougars. St. John Fisher got back to within one with 10:55 remaining in the game, but they were unable to pull even as Misericordia only allowed three more shots, getting timely saves from Beck, and did not turn the ball over, holding onto the ball for a four-minute stretch in the middle of the fourth period.

Newins caused a big turnover with 1:29 to go to help cement the victory.

The Cougars will come back home next week to host Neumann, Wednesday at 4:00.