ERIE, Pa. - Max Eismann grabbed eleven saves, and Sean Stanners and Bennett Johnson scored four goals apiece as the Seton Hill University men's lacrosse team held off Merychurst University in the inaugural Great Midwest Athletic Conference Championship, 15-10, Saturday afternoon at Tullio Field in Erie, Pa.  The win marks the first conference title for the Griffins.

Sean Stanners gave the Griffins a 2-0 lead with goals at the 9:36 and 7:18 marks in the first quarter. Following a Laker goal that made it 2-1, Nick Neferis netted a man-down goal with just over five and a half minutes to go in the quarter to increase the Seton Hill lead to 3-1. John Hofseth scored off of a Jack Moran assist to give the Griffins a 4-1 advance going into the second quarter.

In the second, Stanners started off with his third goal of the game with 12:13 showing on the clock and gave SHU a 5-1 lead. After a Kurtis Woodland goal brought the Lakers to within three, 5-2, Jack Miller responded with an unassisted goal to put the score at 6-2 with just under eight minutes remaining in the half. Keyan McQueen scored for Merychurst with 6:10 to go, but Bennett Johnson scores his first goal of the game not two minutes later to put the scores at 7-3 in favor of Seton Hill. John Plaskey would score for the Lakers to cut the deficit to 7-4, but the Griffins would receive goals by Adam Reimer (2:58) and Johnson (0:53) to go into halftime with a 9-4 lead.

After just over five minutes of scoreless play, Merychurst struck first in the third quarter with a man-up goal by Plaskey. SHU's Jack Moran would answer just a few minutes later to get the lead back to five, 10-5. After Woodland scores another time for Merychurst, Sean Stanners scored his fourth goal of the game with 3:34 remaining in the third to keep their five-goal advantage, 11-6. In the fourth, Adam Reimer's early goal made it 12-6, and it looked as if the Griffins were going to cruise. However, back-to-back goals by Woodland followed by a goal by Plaskey got Merychurst back into the match, 12-9, with 10:30 remaining. Just under a minute later, Jack Miller cut the Laker momentum by scoring his second of the game.  After Woodland struck again at the 8:30 mark, Bennett Johnson netted his third of the game via a Sean Stanners assist to make it 14-10 with 7:36 to go in the contest. From there the two teams would go back-and-forth before Bennett Johnson's fourth a final goal with 23 ticks on the clock sealed the victory.

For the game, Merychurst outshot Seton Hill, 38-29. The Griffins committed 12 turnovers to Mercyhurst's nine. Seton Hill controlled the faceoffs, grabbing 17 of the 27. SHU held a 12-9 advantage in ground balls.

Seton Hill will now look to see whether or not they've done enough in the 2017 campaign to advance to the NCAA Division II tournament. The tournament field will be announced on Sunday.