LANCASTER, Pa. - Franklin & Marshall ran out to a 5-0 lead, as the Elizabethtown College men's lacrosse team fell 17-11 in non-conference action Wednesday night.

With the loss, the Blue Jays fall to 1-3, while the #8 Diplomats improved to 4-0.

Senior Nick Cost finished with a game-high five points, scoring two goals and adding two assists. Senior Owen Yake and sophomore Gavin Gismondi each recorded hat tricks and senior Alex Kilgour tallied four points on two goals and two assists.

Senior Blake Target paced F&M with four goals and one assist.

The Diplomats started hot, scoring three goals in the opening three minutes to take a 5-0 lead after one quarter. F&M pushed it to 6-0 at the start of the second period before sophomore Connor Stewart found Gismondi for the Blue Jays' first goal of the game to make the score 6-1 with 12:10 remaining. Etown would keep the deficit at six at the break, trailing 9-3 heading into the locker room.

After the Diplomats pushed its advantage to 13-6 at the end of the third quarter, Etown began to rally. Cost started the run, scoring less that 30 seconds into the final period to cut the deficit back to six (13-7). Exactly a minute later, senior Micah Ballew got in on the action, as Cost found him for the quick strike to bring the score to 13-8. Gismondi then continued the charge, hooking up with Stewart and making the score 13-9. Yake completed the 4-0 run to start the fourth, taking a pass from Kilgour and sending it home to move the Blue Jays' within three (13-10) with 12:09 on the clock.

That, however, was the final charge for Etown, as F&M answered with four goals of its own before Cost scored the final goal of the game, bringing the final score to 17-11.

Sophomore Brayden Franey (1-2) made 15 saves on 49 shots faces. Franey leads the Landmark with 57 saves.

Sophomore Sage Garito (4-0) mae 13 saves in the winning effort on 36 shots faced.

Senior Danny Gilbert won 11-30 face-offs, whil collecting a team-high five ground balls. Senior Wes Mills finished with a team-high two caused turnovers.

Elizabethtown returns home on Saturday, March 5 against Swarthmore. Opening face-off is set for 3 p.m.