Despite a pair of hat tricks from George Rusnak and Christian Watts, Siena Men's Lacrosse could not overcome its' slow start as the Saints fell in their first road MAAC game 14-10 to VMI on Drill Field #2 in Lexington, VA on Saturday afternoon. 

Siena put themselves in a 6-2 hole at the end of one and battled back throughout to get it within 11-10 with 11:04 to play on a Pratt Reynolds score, but VMI reeled off the final three goals by Luke Mryncza, Simon Moore and Hartley Jordan to finish out the scoring. 

Siena (3-3, 1-1 MAAC) had a tough time on faceoffs, winning 9 of 26 including 5 of 17 in the first half. 

Nevertheless, the Saints powered their way back into the game, scoring six of seven goals during a stretch from late in the second quarter to early in the fourth quarter to give themselves an opportunity. 

Rusnak got it started with an unassisted, man-up goal with 8:19 left in the second. The fifth-year attack would score twice more in the run, keyed on feeds from Ryan McCarthy and Colin Gleason.  Sandwiched in between was a goal by Liam Hassett, his second goal of the season. 

Then, the Saints got a big energy boost from Watts, who went on a tear.  The fifth-year midfielder from East Aurora, NY took advantage of a man-up opportunity with a goal from Zac Schuette and then notched his team-leading 18^th goal of the season just under three minutes later from Reynolds to cut the deficit to two. 

VMI (4-4, 1-1 MAAC) did what they were unable to do last week in a 14-13 defeat to LUI and that was pick up big goals down the stretch as the Keydets outscored the Saints 3-0 in the final 8:54.  VMI now holds a slim 10-9 advantage in the all-time series dating back to 1985.

Saints' goalkeeper Chris Yanchoris (3-3) made 10 saves while Adam Norris came up with nine for VMI. 

Siena was outshot by the Keydets 45-38 including 24-19 for shots on goal. 

Up next, Siena travels back to New York State in Brookville to take on LIU (2-5, 1-1 MAAC) on Saturday, March 25 at 1 p.m.

The teams have split the all-time series at a game apiece with the Saints' last win against the Sharks coming in 2020 by a score of 14-12.