LANCASTER, Pa. – In a meeting of the Centennial Conference's hottest teams, the Ursinus College men's lacrosse team stoked its own flame with a convincing 15-5 victory at Franklin & Marshall, dousing the Diplomats' lengthy winning streak with a first-half blitzkrieg.

Senior Steve Mussoline matched his career high with five goals – all in the first half – and classmate Mike Durst logged his first career hat-trick for Ursinus, which won its fifth straight game and made a major statement against a red-hot Franklin & Marshall squad that had won its last seven games by an average of nearly seven goals.

Freshman Peter DeSimone recorded two goals and a career high-tying four assists, his third straight game with at least four points, and senior Logan Panaccione added a goal and two helpers for the Bears. Sophomore Gerard Brown scored two goals for his first multi-goal effort since the season opener.

Ursinus (7-1, 2-0) turned a matchup of the conference's two most in-form teams into a runaway from the opening face-off, continuing its theme of first-half barrages and coupling it with a dominant defensive effort against a group that had not been held under ten goals since its second game of the season.

The Bears scored on four of their first five shots, as Mussoline deposited two alongside markers by sophomores Ian Desenberg and Brown, all in a span of 2:20 before five minutes had elapsed. After Franklin & Marshall (7-3, 1-1) got on the board with a man-up goal, Mussoline answered with one of his own – this time on a feed from freshman Sam Isola – to give him a hat-trick in the game's first seven minutes. It was the second first-quarter hat-trick in the last three games for Mussoline, who also accomplished the feat against Widener on March 19.

Durst scored twice – one of them on a firecracker from distance – before the end of the quarter, after which Ursinus enjoyed a 7-2 lead. It marked the third straight game in which the Bears scored at least six goals in the first quarter; they tallied six against Swarthmore on Saturday and dropped seven on Widener the week before.

Mussoline potted his fourth of the night early in the second period, and Panaccione's rocket off a dodge to his right stretched the bulge to 9-2. Mussoline then matched his career high – set against Widener – with his fifth goal, working free with a precise cut and depositing a perfect pass from Panaccione with a top-shelf lefty snipe, making it an eight-goal margin midway through the second.

Durst then sealed the first hat-trick of his career with a low rip, bouncing one past Thomas Moore and into the back of the net at 3:07. Senior Tucker Noel got in on the fun a couple minutes later, roofing a lefty laser on the man-up to bury the home side under a double-digit deficit and chase Moore from the game with 1:29 to play in the half.

The Bears converted 12 of 18 shots in the stanza, giving them at least 11 goals in the first half for the third straight game.

While Mussoline and Durst directed the offense, junior Zach Jones teamed with seniors G.B. Harkins, Patrick O'Donoghue, and Brian Neff, among others, to stifle the Diplomats and star attack Sean Rogers. The sophomore, who came in leading the conference in points (40) by a wide margin, was held scoreless on nine shots and did not record a point until an assist early in the fourth quarter.

Neff finished with eight saves for the Bears, many of them at close range.

Thanks to its first-half explosion, Ursinus was able to coast to a comfortable result in a game with relatively even stat lines. The Bears held somewhat slim edges in shots (38-31) and ground balls (18-17) and committed 11 turnovers to F&M's eight, but senior James Fairchild was 16-for-24 on face-offs and Ursinus capitalized on three of its five extra-man opportunities.

Fairchild collected five ground balls, with Harkins adding three in addition to two caused turnovers.

Freshman goalkeeper Scott Hatch managed to stop Ursinus' onslaught in its tracks, making eight saves and keeping the Bears off the scoreboard until Brown pin-pointed a shot between two defenders and into the lower right corner of the net at the 4:26 mark of the fourth quarter. By then, it was much too late. DeSimone accounted for all three of the Bears' goals over the final four minutes and change, setting up tallies by Brown and senior Liam Duke and scoring one of his own to boot.

A big victory in its back pocket, the Bears will go for another on Saturday, when they welcome No. 17 Dickinson to Patterson Field for a CC showdown.