LYNCHBURG, Va. - Stevens used a seven-goal first quarter to post a 17-12 victory over the Catholic University men's lacrosse team in the first round of the NCAA Men's Lacrosse Championship Saturday at Lynchburg's Shellenberger Field.

The Cardinals (8-1) suffered their first loss in 442 days since an 11-7 setback vs. St. Mary's (Md.) at Carlini Field on Feb. 29, 2020.

Making its first NCAA tournament appearance since 2016, Catholic scored first, just 1:27 into the contest when the team's two leading scorers, senior Kevin Crowley and junior Sean Baudo, connected for a 1-0 lead.

However, Stevens (14-2) reeled off the game's next seven tallies to a 7-1 lead with 2:48 remaining in the first quarter. The deficit was the Cardinals' largest of the season.

Catholic responded by scoring six of the next nine goals, including two each from junior Ryan Carroll and sophomore Jack McGorry to cut its deficit to three at halftime, 10-7.

Crowley and Baudo scored back-to-back to start the second half, with Baudo netting his third goal of the game with 8:39 to play in the third to pull the Cardinals within one, but that would be as close as they would get.

The Ducks scored four of the final five goals in the quarter to take a 14-10 lead into the fourth before netting three-straight to start the fourth to take their largest lead, 17-10 with 3:41 left.

Sophomore Nic Pezone made a career-high 24 saves as he faced a season-high 72 shots, including 24 in the first quarter.

Stevens also picked up 61 ground balls and won 21-of-33 faceoffs while forcing Catholic into 17 turnovers, 11 of which came in the first half.

Baudo, Crowley and McGorry each finished with three goals. Baudo totaled his fifth hat-trick this season while also adding two assists for five points. Crowley posted his sixth hat-trick and McGorry netted this third.

Ryan Gebhardt led the Ducks with six goals on 28 shots. He also had two assists. Jake Zeyher made 14 saves.

Junior Tynan Hillery totaled seven ground balls and two caused turnovers. Pezone picked up 10 ground balls and junior Mike McShea had 13 while winning 12 faceoffs.

Catholic concludes its first season under head coach Jon Sax with its third Landmark Conference championship and third NCAA tournament appearance. The team scored 161 goals in only nine games for an average of 17.89 per game and averaged over 54 shots per game.