ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. -- A tie game at the half, Catholic pulled away from the Elizabethtown College men's lacrosse team in the second half to win the Landmark Conference opener for both schools 11-6. Cody Richter led the Blue Jays with a hat trick and an assist.

Elizabethtown (3-5, 0-1 Landmark) had the upper hand after a slashing penalty on the Cardinals put the Jays in an extra man opportunity. It took all of 29 seconds out of the one-minute penalty for Andrew Watts to cash in and score his 11th of the season off a pass from Richter.

Mark Tocchio and Joey Rockovich scored 12 seconds apart a little over a minute after Watts' game-opening goal. Catholic (5-5, 1-0 Landmark) quickly went ahead 2-1. CATHU finished off the first quarter with three additional goals and went into the second up 5-1.

E-town had two more man-up situations in the second quarter and both ended up in the netting as Richter scored twice with the extra man. His first came at 8:24 to make it 5-2. On the ensuing faceoff, Alec Leslie picked up the ground ball on a Catholic turnover, fed the ball up to Griffin Liebsch, who made his way to goal and scored his first of the year to make it 5-3 only 25 seconds after Richter's first of three. An one minute call of unncessary roughness put Catholic a man down and Richter made them pay with his second of the game and fifth of the season. Nick Cost provided the assist and the Blue Jays were back within one goal.

Starting goalie Tom Mahoney made consecutive saves on two Cardinals' shots, one on an EMO for CATHU. The Jays killed off a one minute penalty and shortly thereafter, Richter had completed his second-quarter hat trick with his sixth of the season to tie up the game at 5-5 with 4:36 to go before halftime.

Catholic scored first in the third quarter, but Ben Hiltebeitel tallied his first of the year two and a half minutes later for the game's third tie of the afternoon. The Cardinals grabbed the lead right back on Vince Catenacci's 21st. It would prove to be the game-winner as Alex Mulyk and the Catholic defense held Elizabethtown scoreless over the final 25:10. Mulyk ended with 10 saves for the Cardinals.

Mahoney tied a season-high with 15 saves.

Elizabethtown hosts Frostburg State on Tuesday, March 26, at 4:30 p.m.