A strong second-half comeback attempt wasn’t enough to overcome a sluggish opening 30 minutes for the Clarkson University Lacrosse team as the Golden Knights fell to rival St. Lawrence University 11-8 in Liberty League action in Canton on Wednesday afternoon.

Clarkson, which suffered its first league loss of the season, drops into second place in the Liberty League with a 3-1 conference mark. Suffering its first loss in five games, the Green and Gold stand at 7-3 overall.

The Knights, ranked 18th nationally in the latest Division III poll, struggled at the start against the 12th-ranked Saints and fell behind 3-0 with just under nine minutes to play in the first quarter. Senior Jon Cathcart (Homer, NY) put Clarkson on the scoreboard at 9:40 of the first, but St. Lawrence added two more tallies in the quarter, and tacked on three more scores in the second stanza to hold a commanding 8-1 lead at the half.

St. Lawrence continued to dominate early in the third quarter and put three more goals on the scoreboard to hold an 11-1 advantage 6:21 into the second half.

Clarkson then came back with a more determined effort and shut down the Saints for the remaining 23:39 of the game, while scoring the last seven goals to make it close.

Junior Greg Gibbons (Baldwinsville, NY) led all scorers with a game-high six points on four goals and two assists. Classmate Tom Ross (Adams, NY) tallied two goals and one assist. Junior Brian Hoey (Auburn, NY) chipped in the other Clarkson goal.

Will McKee lead the Saints (7-2, 4-0) with four goals.

St. Lawrence out shot the Knights 31-17, and allowed Clarkson only four total shots in the first half. The Saints also controlled ground balls 38-18. Senior Greg Lamb (Baldwinsville, NY) made 11 saves for the Green and Gold. Junior defensemen Andrew Kott (Auburn, NY) and John Weinhold (Queensbury, NY) recorded four ground balls each for the Knights.

Clarkson is back in action on Saturday when it hosts Skidmore at Hantz Field, beginning at 2:00 p.m.