SYRACUSE, N.Y. - Stevenson men's lacrosse senior Colin Dabney scored four goals while junior Stephen Banick added four assists, but the fourth-ranked Mustangs could not stop No. 2 RIT's extra-man offense which scored six goals as the Tigers posted a 17-10 victory Monday at the Carrier Dome.

Stevenson (0-1) suffered its first loss in a season opener in 11 seasons under head coach Paul Cantabene.

After winning the first three meetings with RIT, including the 2013 national championship game, the Mustangs have dropped the last two with both coming at the Carrier Dome. The Tigers rallied to win last year's game in overtime, 15-14.

RIT (1-0), who was ranked at No. 1 in the latest USILA Division III poll released at halftime, jumped out to a 3-1 lead before Stevenson rallied with three unanswered goals to take a 4-3 lead at the end of the first quarter.

However, the Tigers outscored the Mustangs 14-6 over the final three quarters to post their 21st win in the last 22 games. The team's only loss over that stretch came to defending national champion Tufts in the NCAA semifinals a year ago.

RIT scored three consecutive man-up goals in the second quarter to take a 6-5 lead before Chad Levick scored unassisted with just 42 seconds remaining to give the Tigers a 7-5 halftime advantage.

RIT scored on its first four extra-man opportunities and finished the game 6-for-8.

Levick, who finished with five goals, scored three-straight for the Tigers as he netted the first two of the third quarter, both off assists from Eddie Kiesa, to stretch the RIT leasd to 9-6.

The duo of Levick and Ryan Lee, who also had five goals, combined to score nine of the Tigers' final 12 goals to hand Stevenson its worst loss since a 13-5 defeat versus Salisbury on Apr. 19, 2009 in the Capital Athletic Conference championship game.

Lee finished the game with eight points after adding three assists while Alister Warren had five points on three goals and two assists.

The Mustangs outshot RIT 51-42, but the Tigers' Pat Johnston finished with 19 saves, including six in the decisive fourth quarter. The RIT defense also held Stevenson senior Tony Rossi and sophomore Tyler Fuhrman scoreless.

After RIT won nine of the first 14 faceoffs, the Mustangs won 10 of the final 17 in the second half and held a slim 46-44 edge in groundballs.

In his first game since the 2013 national championship against RIT, Stevenson junior Pat Candon finished with two goals and one assist while senior Billy Burgoyne scored twice. Junior Ben Richards finished with 11 saves in his first game as a Mustang.

Stevenson will play the second of three games in a span of seven days when it travels to Messiah for a Commonwealth Conference contest on Wednesday at 3:00 p.m. The Mustangs are a perfect 16-0 since joining the Commonwealth Conference and have won back-to-back conference championships.