BROOKHAVEN, N.Y.—The Southern New Hampshire University men's lacrosse team dropped the season opener on the road by a score of 7-4 to the No. 5 Golden Lions of Dowling University in non-conference action on Saturday afternoon. With the win, the Golden Lions remain undefeated and improve to 3-0, while the loss drops the Penmen to 0-1. 

The two teams would find themselves tied at 3-3 at halftime, with the Penmen posting a 20-17 shot advantage.  The Penmen would then take the 4-3 lead with 10:59 remaining in the third quarter on Greg Reynolds' (Scituate, Mass.) third goal of the game. Dowling would then score four unanswered goals in the fourth quarter, including two with the extra-man advantage, to run away with the 7-4 win after outshooting the Penmen 20-11 in the second half. 

Reynolds tallied three goals and an assist for the Penmen, while Keith Merluzzo (Billerica, Mass.) added the other Penmen goal. 

Vito Demola totaled three goals for the Golden Lions, while Brendan Hayes, Kevin Sabo, Dan Abbene, and Sheldon Burns each added single tallies. 

Ryan Dougherty recorded 10 saves en route to the win for Dowling.  Eric Gunst (Exeter, N.H.) posted 11 saves in the loss for SNHU. 

Southern New Hampshire returns to action on Wednesday, March 9 when it travels to the New York Institute of Technology for a 3:00 p.m. matchup.