ROME -- The Hawks fell to St. Leo 17-7 Saturday afternoon at Ben Brady Field.

Shorter slips to 1-3 on the season with the loss, while the Lions improve to 2-1 overall.

St. Leo took the lead early, scoring the first goal of the game with 12:40 to play in the first quarter. But, the lead was short lived as the Hawks tied the game less than a minute later on a score from Alex Malinowski. Through the next five minutes, the teams traded goals as Jake Gilmour added a score from the Lions, and Aswan Bland posted his first goal of the game with 7:54 to play in the quarter to make it a 2-2 game. Before time ran out St. Leo added two goals from Dylan Yonts, before Stephan Stanfill found the back of the net in the final minute of the frame to take a 5-3 score into the second quarter.

In the second period, the Lions tallied four scores to extend their lead and take a 9-3 advantage into the intermission.

Bland opened the third period with a goal for the Hawks to make it a 9-4 game, but that was the only score Shorter would tally in the third quarter while St. Leo added five to make it a 14-4 game going into the final fifteen minutes.

In the final quarter both teams' added three goals with the Lions opening the frame with three consecutive scores, before the Hawks tallied three to close out the game. Matt Kristiansen found the back of the net with 5:11 to play; then eight seconds later Joshua Skinner took the face-off straight to the goal for a score of his own Jack Currier tallied the final goal of the afternoon for the 17-7 final score.

In total, St. Leo outshot the Hawks 43-22, and held a 34-19 advantage in shots on goal. While also leading in ground balls 34-28 and winning 20 face-offs.

Garry Robinson made 17 saves in goal for Shorter. Jordan Coates tallied a team high four ground balls and caused five turnovers on defense for the Hawks.

Shorter will return to action next Saturday afternoon, March 5, as they travel to the University of Indianapolis for a 3:00pm start.