PHILADELPHIA --- Despite one of its strongest performances of the season, the NJIT men's lacrosse team suffered a 15-11 defeat to the Saint Joseph's Hawks Saturday evening at Sweeney Field.

Collin Fogerty matched his career high by scoring three goals and set a new personal best with four points after adding an assist to his ledger. Jackson Boyd also tied his top scoring effort with a pair of goals for NJIT (1-7) and Ryan Darrow gave the Highlanders a third multi-goal scorer with two goals of his own.

Adding to NJIT's point tally were Aaron Forster, Cole Robillard, Grant Toller and Max Wilson. Richard Nardone recorded his first two points of the season with a game-high-tying two assists.

NJIT and Saint Joseph's (4-4) could not build any separation from each other in the first half, playing within two goals of each other throughout the game's first 30 minutes. After SJU scored the first goal of the day, NJIT retaliated with back-to-back scores from Fogerty and Robillard from Nardone to take a 2-1 lead with 7:14 to go in the period. The Hawks regained the lead with two quick scorers but the Highlanders did the same thing and remained ahead, 4-3, until an SJU goal with under ten seconds left squared the game once again.

Toller's second goal of the year gave NJIT a 5-4 edge as the second quarter began but the Highlanders lost the lead after SJU converted on three straight shot attempts over a two-minute stretch to fall behind 7-5. Darrow and Fogerty each scored and pulled NJIT to within one with their second half goals but Saint Joseph's entered the half with a 9-7 advantage after another goal with little time on the clock.

The decisive quarter in the contest proved to be the third. Saint Joseph's outscored NJIT 4-1 to begin the second half - with Fogerty netting an unassisted strike - and turned a two-point deficit into a five-point one for the visitors.

The Highlanders won the fourth quarter, 3-2, and scored those three goals in succession to cut SJU's lead to 13-11 with 2:28 left. Saint Joseph's was able to keep possession for most of those final two-plus minutes and scored a pair of empty net goals for insurance.

NJIT will play its next two games at home, starting with a matchup against Fairfield on Tuesday, March 19 at 6 p.m.

OTHER NOTES

• With his goal in today's game, Aaron Forster is now one shy of becoming the first Highlander in program history to reach 100 for a career.
• On the defensive end, Sean Duncan led NJIT with three ground balls and seven faceoff wins while Kevin Falteisek caused four Hawk turnovers.
• Alexzander Hunt stopped 16 shots in goal against Saint Joseph's while playing all 60 minutes.