Eric Harries with two goals on a game-high nine shots for the Ravens

ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (March 20, 2013) -- The Franklin Pierce University men's lacrosse team forced a 6-6 tie early in the second half on Wednesday, but Molloy responded with a 7-1 rally and the Lions held off the Ravens, 13-9, at the Dean Skelos Complex in Rockville Centre, N.Y. Franklin Pierce dipped to 1-2, while Molloy ran its win streak to six-straight games to open the season (6-0).

Senior midfielder Eric Harries (Dunstable, Mass.) registered a game-high nine shots for Franklin Pierce and scored a team-high tying two goals, including one 70 seconds into the third quarter to knot the score at 6-all.

The Ravens seemed to be gaining momentum, but for the second-consecutive game the opposition responded with a strong surge which Franklin Pierce could not overcome. Molloy responded to Harries' tally by reeling off seven of the next eight goals to bridge the third and fourth quarters to take a 13-7 lead with 7:02 remaining.

Seven different Lions scored during the surge, which was kick-started by Austin Valenti's marker at the 11:13 mark of the third. Kevin Catalano made it 8-6 with a goal at 9:12 and Peter Clark followed with a man-up goal exactly two minutes later to cap the scoring in the third.

Junior middie Alex Connolly (West Newbury, Mass.) briefly stemmed the tide for Franklin Pierce in the beginning of the fourth quarter as he sent home a strike off a nice dish from sophomore Kevin Dargin (Littleton, Mass.), who had a four-point afternoon with two goals and a pair of assists. It was the second-straight strong offensive game for Dargin, who was coming off a hat-trick in Saturday's game versus Saint Rose.

Molloy, though, went right back to work with four-consecutive goals, including a pair within a 24-second span to go up 11-7. Joseph Biscardi started the blitz with a marker at 12:33 and Sal Geneva scored his second man-up goal of the game at 12:09. The Lions slowed for two minutes, but came back and tossed in two more goals in a 36-second span, including one from Tom Engelhardt at 7:38 and one from Kenny Lutz at 7:02. Valenti notched an assist on both goals, while Lutz capped his hat-trick performance with the late goal.

Freshman attackman Casey Burnett (Windham, N.H.) brought the score a little closer for Franklin Pierce with a pair of tallies a little more than a minute apart, but that was all the Ravens could muster for a comeback.

Both teams fired off 33 shots, but Molloy was able to get 24 on net compared to 17 for the Ravens. Franklin Pierce sophomore goalie Don Denman (Exeter, N.H.) was peppered with shots throughout the afternoon, but did turn aside 11 despite suffering the loss to fall to 1-2 on the year. John Grebe made eight saves to earn the win for Molloy.

Harries scored his first goal of the game at the 12:16 mark of the first quarter to stake the Ravens to an early 2-1 advantage. The teams began to trade goals throughout the remainder of the first half and Joe Leonard put the Lions on top 6-5 at halftime with a late goal in the second.

Franklin Pierce returns to action Saturday when the Ravens play host to Adelphi at 11 a.m. on Sodexo Field in Rindge.

For more information on Franklin Pierce men's lacrosse, please visit the team's page at athletics.franklinpierce.edu(.) To follow the program even further, please visit Franklin Pierce Athletics on YouTube (www.youtube.com/FranklinPierceSports), Twitter (www.twitter.com/FPUathletics) and Facebook (www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce men's lacrosse apparel can do so on the athletic department's online store at athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store(.)