LEXINGTON, Va. -- Chad Gamble's third goal of the game proved to be the difference as Franklin & Marshall downed No. 11 Washington & Lee 7-6 in men's lacrosse action Saturday afternoon. The win is the second straight over the Generals for the Diplomats as F&M improved to 2-1 while W&L dropped to 3-2. 

F&M trailed 5-4 coming out of the halftime break when Michael Bossidy found Will Ballantyne at 10:30 in third to tie the game at 5-5. Jonathan Henry snuck one through for the Generals at the end of the third to put W&L back on top 6-5 heading into the final frame.

The Diplomat defense stepped in the fourth and kept W&L off the board the final 16:22 of action. Michael Bossidy finished off a Ballantyne at 9:19 to tie the game at 6-6 and Chad Gamble's game-winner occurred 2:34 later and the defense did the rest to help secure the victory.

W&L jumped out to an early 2-0 lead a little over five minutes into the game before Chad Gamble led F&M on a 3-0 spurt. Gamble buried a pass from Michael Bossidy with 2:33 left in the first and returned the favor two minutes with a feed to Bossidy to tie the game at 2-2 with under a minute left in the first.

Gamble put F&M up 3-2 with an unassisted tally at 13:29 in the second and the Generals responded with three straight and took a 5-3 edge at 7:16. With 40 seconds left on the clock, Michael Bossidy found Ben Ross for the score to bring the Diplomats within a goal, 5-4, heading into the break.

Michael Bossidy finished with two scores and three assists while Gamble picked up the hat trick and dished out an assist. Ross had a score and Ballantyne picked up a score and an assist.

Nick Wells caused four turnovers and Connor Melillo had three to pace the defense. Melillo added six ground balls while Sean Brown finished with six of his own and Wells collected four ground balls for the Diplomats.

Timothy Mattessich turned away nine shots to pick up the win and improved to 2-1 and Wyatt Devine took the loss with 17 stops.

F&M outshot W&L 38-26, went 23-for-25 in clears and held a 30-26 edge in ground balls.

The Diplomats return to action on Wednesday when F&M hosts Susquehanna at 4:00 p.m.