YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. | The Young Harris College men's lacrosse team ran their win streak to 10 Saturday (April 7)  afternoon at the YHC Soccer and Lacrosse Field, but it wasn't easy.

The Mountain Lions, who scored five unanswered goals to open up an 8-4 lead midway through the third quarter, held on for a 12-10 non-conference victory over North Greenville University.

Young Harris improved to 10-3, while the Crusaders fell to 6-5. The 10 wins in a season by the Mountain Lions ties the mark set by the 2016 edition. YHC travels to Montevallo, Alabama, Saturday (April 14) for a 1 p.m. Central time Great Lakes Valley Conference match against the University of Montevallo.

The Mountain Lions took a 5-4 halftime lead after Nolan Moon and Bevan Pate found the back of the net in the final 70 seconds of the first half. Young Harris increased its lead to 8-4 as they scored the first three goals of the third quarter. Matrty Ledon scored the first on a nifty behind-the-back goal with 10:15 remaining, before Hayes Johnson and Pate scored back-to-back goals within a nine-second span.

North Greenville mounted a rally as they scored the next four goals to pull within one at 9-8 with 11:42 remaining in the game. Chandler Bradley converted an NGU penalty into a YHC goal and Garrett Blake scored to give the Mountain Lions a 10-8 lead with 5:48 to go.

The Crusaders tied the game at 10 as they scored twice in the 39 seconds. However, Zach Stephenson, who won 14 face-offs, won the ensuing face-off and streaked down the field to put Young Harris up 11-10 with 5:01 to play. Pate added an insurance goal for the Mountain Lions with 17.9 seconds to seal the win.

Pate led the Mountain Lions with three goals, while Blake, Moon and Ledon each found the back of the net twice. Bradley, Johnson and Stephenson had one goal each.. Daniel Zimny led Young Harris with three assists, while Blake and Bruce Silk had two each and Moon contributed another one.

YHC held an edge in shots (38-31), ground balls (25-20), and face-offs (14-10) over North Greenville. Stephenson led the Mountain Lions with 10 ground balls, while Alex Venturino had five and Julian Infanti and Jake Dunlop each scooped up three more. 

Sean Dever stopped nine shots in goal for the Mountain Lions.