In games that are close at halftime, the Brunswick School lacrosse team has shown a penchant for pulling away from the opposition in the second half.

Yet unfortunately for the Bruins, that didn’t happen on Wednesday against Lawrenceville School.

Brunswick entered halftime with a one-goal lead on Lawrenceville, but an impressive third quarter enabled the visiting Big Red to post a big victory their program.

Lawrenceville upped its record to 8-0 by posting an 11-9 come-from-behind win over the Bruins in a non-divisional game held at Cosby Field.

The loss was the second in three games for the Bruins, whose first loss of the season came against non-conference foe Darien last week, a 12-11 defeat. Brunswick went into Wednesday’s matchup against Lawrenceville from New Jersey ranked No. 3 in the Nike/USA Lacrosse National Boys Top 25.

Senior midfielder Tomas Delgado registered two goals and two assists, as did senior defensive midfielder Hunter Spiess for the Bruins, whose records stands at 5-2. The Bruins held a 5-4 halftime advantage on the Big Red.

“I thought it was a fairly sloppy game, but two teams that run an aggressive ride will do that to you,” Brunswick coach David Bruce said. “The first half, we won the majority of the tough ground balls, which led to a lead. The second half, they won the majority of the tough ground balls and I thought they had a couple of better possessions than we had.”

Patrick Mullen, a senior midfielder tallied twice, while freshman attack Lucas Garcia and senior midfielder Will Erdman added one goal apiece for Brunswick.

Garcia gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead, scoring with 10:34 remaining in the first quarter. Senior midfielder/FOGO won the ensuing faceoff, but Lawrenceville came up with a defensive stop, keeping its deficit at one goal. The visitors scored a pair of goals at the 9:23 and 6:21 mark of the opening quarter to go ahead, 2-1. Spiess knotted the score at 2-2 for Brunswick, going top shelf with his shot, after creating a Lawrenceville turnover with 5:27 left in the first frame.

A goal with just 12.1 seconds to go in the opening quarter gave Lawrenceville a 3-2 lead. The Bruins responded by having the better of the play in the second quarter.

Erdmann converted a shot from 10 yards out, after Delgado saved the Bruins’ possession by scooping up a ground ball that was headed toward the sideline, tying the score at 3-3 early in the second quarter. Delgado then scored from close range after picking up a ground ball, making it 4-3 with 7:06 to go in the second stanza.

Spiess’ second goal on a nice hustle play, put the home team on top, 5-3 with 3:40 remaining in the second quarter. A Lawrenceville goal with 2:37 left cut the Bruins’ lead to 5-4- after two quarters of play.

Lawrenceville outscored the Bruins, 5-2 in the third quarter to seize a 9-7 edge.

“I think they kind of outworked us in the second half,” said Greenspan, who performed especially well on faceoffs for Brunswick. “It was a great battle, but they kind of outworked us in the middle of the field. Their defense played well, their offense was pretty good and their goalie played well.”

Junior goalie Tucker Williams made 15 saves, seven of which came during the third quarter for the Bruins, who had opportunities to knot the score in the final quarter. Senior midfielder Leo Hoffman assisted on two goals and senior attack Jackson Wolfram had an assist for Brunswick.

“A lot of shots were flying, we were running the offense we wanted,” Delgado said. “Overall, we were just sloppy. That’s what it comes down to, the basics. Catching and throwing the ball, slowing it down when we needed to and taking good shots.”

Said Bruce: “I didn’t think our offense was playing great in the first half, but we were scoring goals in transition and it was two very athletic physical teams. One team won the ground balls in the first half and one team picked up more in the second half.”

“We’re not happy with giving up double digit goals, but we certainly gave ourselves enough chances to come back,” Bruce continued. “Their goalie made some great saves and played a great game.”

Brunswick has little time to dwell on the loss, as they will face another highly competitive team – St. John’s Prep – at Loomis Chaffee School on Saturday at 12 p.m. St. John’s Prep is a premier team from Massachusetts.

“It does not get easier, so we need to break apart what we did wrong and continue to building on that and keep getting better every day,” Greenspan noted.