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Matt Brown scored six goals and Brendan Mundorf scored five as the Denver Outlaws defeated the Toronto Nationals 20-16 at BMO Field on Saturday night.

Brown and Mundorf broke open a 10-9 Outlaws lead with two goals each in a decisive third quarter.

Scoring for Toronto (4-4) were Merrick Thomson (4), Delby Powless (3), Colin Doyle (2), Gavin Prout, Shawn Williams, Brodie Merrill, Joe Walters and Stephen Hoar.

Doc Schneider stopped nine of 19 shots in his 30 minutes of work. Brett Queener came in for the second and stopped three of 13 shots.

After a 4-1 start, the Nationals have now lost three in a row and sit fifth in the Major League Lacrosse (MLL) standings.

“You’ve got to catch and throw, you’ve got to pick the ball off the ground,” Nationals head coach Dave Huntley said. “It’s basic lacrosse stuff. We’re better than that but it’s not enough to talk we’re better but we have to start playing like it.”

“It’s a pretty sombre mood,” Nationals attacker Colin Doyle said. “You win games and you lose games but it all depends on how you rebound. I think we’re still trying to figure out who we are.”

Also scoring for Denver (6-1) were Drew Westervelt (3) Dan Hardy (2), Josh Sims (2), Jeff Sonke and Nate Watkins.

Jesse Schwartzman stopped eight of 21 to get his sixth win of the year.

After losing its opening game to Chicago, the Outlaws have now won six consecutive games and sit atop the MLL standings.

In their last match up against the Outlaws, the Nationals lost 15-8 at INVESCO Field in Denver but a competitive 30 minutes on Saturday was spoiled by a poor third quarter.

Denver built a 3-1 lead just past the ten-minute mark of the first quarter.

Three goals in 1:50 gave the Nationals a 4-3 lead at 12:30 of the opening quarter but Denver evened it up when Brown beat Schneider high to the stick side with a minute left.

The second quarter was a game of give and take. Denver took the lead three times but the Nationals fought back to tie it each time, the last being Powless’ goal to knot the score at 7-7.

The Outlaws finished the quarter on a 3-1 run and led 10-8 at the break.

“It’s a game of momentum,” Nationals midfielder Joe Walters said. “It felt like every time we scored they would score right after and you can’t have that. We need to get on a roll ourselves but we just couldn’t get it going.”

In their last match up against the Outlaws on June 20, the Nationals were outscored 11-2 in the first half.

A shorthanded goal by Merrill nine seconds into the third quarter cut the lead to one but two goals each by Mundorf and Brown pushed the lead to 14-9.

“I think we are finding a way to unravel,” Nationals attacker Colin Doyle said.

In seven quarters against the Nationals this year Brown has scored nine goals and Mundorf has netted seven.

Denver led 16-10 after three quarters of play.

By 4:20 of the fourth quarter the score was 18-11 for Denver but goals by Thomson and Doyle gave the crowd of 3,791 something to cheer about but Watkins pushed the lead back to six at the 9:03 mark.

Mundorf scored the 20th goal for Denver, which matched its season high in goals for.

A two-point goal by Hoar and single for Thomson made the final score 20-16.

“I think our competition has got a lot better,” Doyle said. “Denver and Boston are the two best teams in the league. If we play average against them they will beat us.”