A five-goal run in the third and fourth quarters proved to be the difference on Saturday afternoon as Boston University rallied past the Canisius College men's lacrosse team, 10-8. The Terriers improve to 5-1 on the season, while the Griffs were playing in their season opener.

“I think there are a lot of positive to take out of our season opener,” said Canisius head coach Randy Mearns.”We have very good long poles with a great mix of long-stick midfielders, Liam Ganzhorn was phenomenal in goal and we have capable attackmen. A lot of the tools are there to be successful. However, we still have to better. We can do a better job on man up and we saw what a great face-off weapon can do. With such a young team, we are still learning how to win. If we can do that, we can have a ton of success this year. We will continue to improve and now get ready for Vermont.”

Sophomore Ryan McKee led the Griffs with a career-best four points in the contest, scoring two goals to go along with two assists. Junior Lewis Vaccaro also matched his personal best with two tallies, while seniors Vince Gravino and Nick Tuttle, junior Jeff Edwards and sophomores Steven Coss also added tallies for Canisius.

Freshman Liam Ganzhorn was solid between the pipes for the Griffs, recording 13 saves in his first collegiate start.

Vaccaro netted the Griffs' first goal of the 2016 campaign at the 5:22 mark of the opening frame but it was BU who took a 3-1 lead into the break thanks to two man-up tallies in the first. The Terriers then stretched their advantage to three, 4-1, early in the second but back-to-back tallies from Tuttle and McKee brought Canisius within one, 4-3, at the half.

The Griffs came out strong in the second half and scored the first four goals of the third quarter to take a 7-4 lead. Edwards, Coss and Gravino all scored for Canisius before McKee capped the run with his second tally of the day. Overall, the Griffs scored six-straight goals in the second and third frames, while holding BU without a goal for 26:47 in building the three-score advantage.

However, the Terriers quickly claimed the momentum during a 38-second span. Tristan Ruh ended the BU drought with 10 seconds remaining in the third quarter and after the Terriers won the ensuing faceoff, they were able to draw a Canisius penalty. BU took advantage with its third extra-man goal of the game 18 seconds into the fourth and then Sam Talkow would win the faceoff and score 10 seconds later to square the game at seven.

The Terriers scored two more goals 54 seconds apart to take a 9-7 lead with 10:04 remaining in the contest, capping a 5-0 run in 5:06 span. Canisius cut the deficit in half when Vaccaro scored with 3:42 left in the contest but BU answered for the 9-7 finally tally.

Canisius finished the contest with a slight advantage in shots, 37-34, while the Terriers won the faceoff battle, 13-7, and held the edge in ground balls, 24-22. BU also converted 3-of-5 extra-man opportunities, while killing all three Canisius man-up chances.

Brendan Homrie and Jack Wilson each tallied a game-high three goals for the Terriers, while Christian Carson-Banister stopped 10 shots in net.

Canisius returns to action on Tuesday with a neutral site contest against Vermont. The schools are set to meet in the first-ever international Division I men's lacrosse game in Oshawa, Ontario with the first face-off slated for 3 p.m.

Game Notes: McKee tallied four points on Saturday after recording eight points in 14 games as a freshman (5g, 3a) … Canisius was the last Division I school to play a game in 2016 … The Griffs opened the season with Boston University for the third-straight season, earning a victory in 2014 before the Terriers answered with wins in 2015 and this season.