In 2005, the Robert Morris University men’s lacrosse team was unable to capture a win against Saint Joseph’s in its first Division I game. On Sunday afternoon, the Colonials had a chance to rack up their first win versus SJU, however RMU was unable to do so, falling to the Hawks, 11-8, at Joe Walton Stadium.

“Obviously a conference game, one thing we always talk about is just treating every day the same. Getting into the conference schedule here, it was an important day to get things started off on the right foot,” said head coach Andrew McMinn. “It’s a long season ahead of us and still only one conference game in. Now it’s kind of about how we respond from here.”

RMU opened the scoring early in the first quarter courtesy of a goal from senior defender Sean Meagher netting his first tally of the day. The Colonials added two more to the board, giving Robert Morris a two goal advantage heading into the second quarter.

During the second quarter, both teams exchanged goals, but with 2:55 remaining in the frame, the Hawks took their first lead of the game when they tallied their sixth goal.

Though the lead didn’t last long. 27 seconds later, freshman Jon Patrick Kealey scored the Colonials’ sixth goal.

“The second half, we felt like we had exposed them in transition and limited opportunities that we had pushed in the first half and our game plan going into the second half was to really try and make it more of a game in between the lines,” said McMinn. “To Saint Joe’s credit, they had the ball in their possession for the majority of the second half and took a lot of wind out of our sails, so to speak. We weren’t really able to get the momentum going in the transition game we would have liked to.”

The Hawks would soar in the final half, scoring three goals in the third quarter, while keeping RMU off the board.

During the final 15 minutes of play, SJU netted two more goals, while Meagher added his second of the game, resulting in RMU’s third loss of the season.

“The one thing now that we kind of put ourselves in the situation we’re in, it’s about how we respond. We’re really geared toward talking about some of the things we need to correct from today,” McMinn said of the loss. “With the short turn around, that’s going to be pretty quick to be able to prepare for our next opponent. Starting tomorrow then into Tuesday and into our game on Wednesday, that’s going to be our focus.”