GAMBIER, Ohio – The Kenyon College men's lacrosse team never trailed the visiting Capital University Crusaders in Saturday afternoon's non-conference contest at McBride Field. The Lords, however, needed a strong finish to close out a 14-11 victory after Capital pulled within one goal late in the game.

A Jonah Florence goal early in the fourth quarter put Kenyon ahead 11-6. That five-goal cushion didn't last long, though. Capital rattled off four scores in a four-minute span with Carson Paull netting two of those four and bringing the Kenyon lead down to 11-10 with 7:23 left in the game.

The Lords responded to the pressure and they did so in a hurry. Will Swain won the next faceoff for Kenyon and Nick Vitale scored an unassisted goal just 26 seconds after Capital's last tally. It was Vitale's second goal of the game and fourth of the season.

Swain then won the next two face-offs for the Lords and, after a series of shots, Kenyon increased its lead to three goals. Joe Woody assisted Pierce Kraft on the Lords' 13th goal of the game and then Sam Humphrey tacked on Kenyon's final goal, giving the Lords a 14-10 advantage with about four minutes left.

Kraft and Florence both rang up four goals for Kenyon, which improved to 2-1 with the win. Kraft also had an assist and Florence was credited with two assists.

In addition to the goals from Vitale and Humphrey, other Kenyon goal-scorers included Woody, Josh Galardi and Matt Pollack. Humphrey, Woody and Galardi all had two assists, as well.

Paull was among three players with two goals for Capital, a team that was playing its first game of the season. The other five Crusader goals came from Teddy Crites.

Early in the game, Kenyon looked like it would run away with things. The Lords took a 3-0 lead within in the first six minutes of play and went up 6-1 early in the second quarter before settling on 7-5  halftime lead.

Kenyon outshot Capital 13-5 in the first quarter and 44-29 for the game. The Lords also took advantage of man-up situations, scoring three times in eight attempts. On the flip side, Capital was held to just one extra-man goal in four opportunities.

Swain scooped up a game-high eight groundballs and wound up winning 18-of-28 face-offs before Joey Ledwin jumped in and won the last faceoff of the game for Kenyon.

In goal, senior Reed Levesque played the full 60 minutes and made four saves for the Lords, who now turn their attention to next Saturday's home game against the Albion College Britons.