Lexington, Va. — The Le Moyne College men’s lacrosse team opened play in the Northeast Conference with a 10-9 victory over the Virginia Military Institute on Saturday at Drill Field No. 2.

VMI, which entered the game leading Division I in scoring at 17.3 goals per game and received votes in the latest Inside Lacrosse Media Poll, scored the first two goals over the opening 2:39 of the contest.

Following a possession clock violation on the Dolphins, Wil Duffy got the Keydets on the scoreboard at the 12:53 mark with his ninth goal of the year off a pass from Luke Rusterucci. Just 32 seconds later, Jack Duncan-Bloom tallied his sixth goal of the season.

The Dolphins responded with the next two goals. Freshman midfielder Emmet McDermott (Pleasantville, N.Y./Pleasantville) pulled the team within one at the 10:07 mark with his third goal of the season.

Graduate student midfielder Ethan Loun (West Linn, Ore./West Linn) evened the score at two with 2:50 left with his sixth goal of the year.

The Keydets regained the lead with two seconds left in the quarter as Simon Moore tallied his fifth goal of the year after taking a pass from Rusterucci.

Austin English pushed VMI’s lead back to two at the 13:16 mark of the second quarter with his 22nd goal of the year off a feed in transition from Erik Gottmann.

Le Moyne countered again with the next two goals to tie the score once more. Senior midfielder Ryan Eisenmann (Boca Raton, Fla./Boca Raton) netted his ninth goal of the season with 12:19 left off a feed from redshirt sophomore attackman Thomas Berry (Tully, N.Y./Tully).

Graduate student attackman Zachary Delaney (Syracuse, N.Y./Onondaga/Hobart) knotted the score at four with 9:24 left after collecting a pass from Berry.

VMI went back up by two again with consecutive goals from English. He scored at 4:44 off a pass from Rusterucci and at 3:19 following a pass from Moore.

Berry had a two-goal spurt of his own to tie the score at six going into halftime. He finished off a pass from Eisenmann with 1:39 remaining. Following a possession clock violation on the Keydets with 16 seconds left, he scored with only a second left after receiving a feed from Loun.

VMI took the lead back at the 8:30 mark of the third quarter as English scored his fourth goal of the game off a dish from Rusterucci in an extra-man situation.

Junior midfielder Zack Crosby (Auburn, N.Y./Auburn) tied the score at seven with 1:49 left in the period with his fifth goal of the campaign.

Following a save by VMI goalkeeper Damian Levin, Nate Golding scored in transition with 38 seconds left off a pass from Jack Myhre to give the Keydets their final lead of the game.

The Dolphins scored the first three goals of the fourth quarter to take the lead. Junior attackman Owen Wilson (Latham, N.Y./Shaker) tallied his seventh goal of the season with 10:32 to play off a feed from junior midfielder Alec Constable (Penfield, N.Y./Penfield). Following an empty possession by each team, Loun gave the Dolphins their lead with 8:03 to go after receiving a pass from Eisenmann. Delaney put the Dolphins up by two with the eventual game-winner with 5:52 left with his ninth goal of the season.

Following three empty possessions by each team over the next five and one-half minutes, Rusterucci scored his 28th goal of the season in a man-down situation with 15 seconds to play.

The Keydets won the ensuing faceoff and were able to get two shots off, but both were wide and time expired.

Sophomore goalkeeper Lucas Winger (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South) earned his second career victory between the pipes after making 10 saves in his first career start. The Le Moyne defense held Dayton Bagwell, who entered the game third in Division I averaging 4.0 goals per game, without a goal and held Rusterucci, who was fifth at 3.86, to just one goal. Levin finished the game with nine saves in the loss for the Keydets.

Le Moyne (4-2, 1-0 NEC) is back in action at 6 p.m. Tuesday at the Naval Academy.