MADISON, N.J. -- The FDU-Florham men's lacrosse team second half comeback fell short as the Devils dropped a 14-8 conference decision to Misericordia University on Saturday afternoon at Robert T. Shields Field.

The Devils fell to 6-8 on the season and 2-3 in the Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom as the Cougars improved to 8-3 and 5-0 in the conference.

FDU-Florham celebrated their nine senoirs of during a Joe Rapuano, Kevin Loveland, Connor May, Connor Bodington, Nick Grasso, Mike Duesler, Matt Melnik, Dalton Rimmer and Dan Decker during a Senior Day celebration before the match.

Freshman John Belanger and Melnik each scored twice in the defeat as Decker caused four turnovers and picked up nine ground balls. 

The Cougars jumped out early taking command of the game with a five-goal first quarter. Belanger was able to fire in a man-up goal to cut the opposing lead by one.

Misericordia continued to find the net in the second quarter as the Devils left half time trailing 9-3. 

The Devils rallied in the third quarter, scoring four-straight goals over over the course of about two minutes.
 
Melnik kickstarted the comeback by scoring with 5:59 left in the third quarter. Just 38 seconds later, Rimmer fired one in off a feed from junior David Stewart.

Melnik followed up with another tally exactly a minute after his first off a Rimmer assist. Freshman Alec Orazietti completed the third quarter scoring campaign with a man-up goal, assisted by freshman John Guido to bring the score to 10-7 in favor of the Cougars. 

However, despite a score from Guido early in the fourth quarter, Brandon Winslow scored three straight for the Cougars and Pat Kellish added one to hold off the Devils.

Sophomore Kyle Conrad stepped up in the midfield with five ground balls as classmate Tom Tornetto made 20 saves in the loss.

Up next, the Devils travel to Purchase, N.Y. to take on Manhattanville College on Tuesday, April 25 at 7 p.m. in MAC Freedom play.