ST. LOUIS – Looking to snap a two-game losing streak at Spartan Field, the Missouri Baptist men's lacrosse team was able to bounce back in a big way with an 8-7 comeback win over Lourdes University. The Spartans got back to .500 and improved to 2-2 on the year while dealing the visiting Gray Wolves their first loss of the season.
 
Lourdes, which is receiving votes in the latest NAIA Coaches' Top 10 poll, scored a pair of goals in the opening minutes to take the early 2-0 lead. Shortly after though, the Spartans answered with back-to-back goals by Trevor Park and Josh Zion with less than two minutes between the two.
 
For the next 45 minutes, MBU and Lourdes traded goals in the evenly-matched contest. Prior to halftime, sophomore Jaxon Haas scored his first goal of the game on an extra-man opportunity and sent the Spartans into the break tied at 4-4.
 
Each time the Gray Wolves found the back of the net, the Spartans responded both offensively and defensively. After yielding a combined 33 goals to Benedictine and Ottawa, the Spartans' long poles stood their ground on Saturday and first-year starter Hunter Filla stepped up with several key stops and 10 saves on the day.
 
Ian Olenski joined the likes of Zion and Haas with an equalizer of his own in the third quarter. Lourdes' leading scorer Nick Johnson notched his 10^th goal of the season with five minutes to go in the third quarter and that 6-5 LU lead lingered for the next 13 minutes. That is until the Spartans made their move.
 
Capitalizing on a slashing call, Alex Todd evened things at 6-all with a goal assisted by Josh Zion with 6:57 left on the clock. Noah Campbell, the Spartans' faceoff specialist on Saturday, was near perfect in the second half winning 7 out of 9. None were bigger than his clutch faceoff win, ground ball and penalty drawn that led to another man-up goal and the eventual gamewinner. Missouri Baptist took its first lead of the game with 6:24 remaining after scoring back-to-back EMO goals just 33 seconds apart.
 
Yellow flags continued to fly in the fourth quarter and Missouri Baptist was there to exploit the Gray Wolves' errors. Not much can rival the importance of a gamewinning goal, however, senior Luke Slagle's goal with 3:53 left proved to be just as significant. Following a Josh Zion shot on goal, Slagle proceeded to shovel the loose ball that ricocheted off Lourdes goalkeeper Tyler Hart into the back of the net for his first goal of the season. The Spartans' fourth man-up goal of the day provided a two-score cushion, which came in handy when the Gray Wolves notched a man-up goal of their own with just a minute remaining.
 
Missouri Baptist successfully ran down the rest of the clock and helped secure Andy Joly's 100^th career win as a head coach. In his 12^th season with MBU men's lacrosse, Joly currently sports a record of 100-65 (.606).
 
Individual leaders on the day included Josh Zion, who paced the Spartans in goals (2), assists (2), points (4) and shots. The trio of Noah Campbell, Kai Meyers and Fisher Nuss all had a game-high 5 ground balls apiece.
 
Up next for the Spartans is a Spring Break road trip to Michigan to play Concordia University-Ann Arbor (March 12) and No. 6-ranked Siena Heights University (March 14).