CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Brian Masterson (Toledo, Ohio, St. John's Jesuit) scored three goals to get the No. 8 Royals back on track as Queens University of Charlotte men's lacrosse defeated Catawba College, 12-9, Saturday afternoon at Shuford Stadium.

Mike Delallo (Syracuse, N.Y., West Genesee) won 16-of-24 face-offs to lead the way for the Royals, who improve to 8-2, while the Indians fall to 4-6 on the season.

C.J. Dunshie gave Catawba the early lead midway through the first quarter, but Queens tallied twice in the final 35 seconds to take the lead.  The Royals grabbed a 3-1 lead on Masterson's first goal just 18 seconds into the second quarter after an illegal-stick penalty gave Queens a man-up situation.

The Indians killed off the rest of the three-minute penalty and pulled within a goal on a tally by Marty Tuohy with a man down.  Walter McDonough tied the score at the 11:50 mark on the first of his four goals for Catawba.  Braden Artem tied the score for the last time at 4-4. The Royals would answer, scoring twice in less than a minute with 6:06 to go in the half before trading a pair of goals to go into the break with an 8-6 lead.

Queens stormed out of the break, scoring four of the first five goals after the half.  Catawba got two goals back in the final 3:19, but Delallo continued to control the face-offs to keep the Indians at bay.  The Royals held a 47-30 edge in ground balls in addition to its face-off advantage.

Catawba took 37 shots to 30 for Queens with Royals goalkeeper Brandon Macknew (Abington, Md., Bel Air) stopping 12 shots.  Michael Pecchia had nine saves for Catawba.

The Royals are back in action April 10th when they welcome No. 10 Mars Hill (7-4), for a Senior Day match at 1:00 p.m.