CARLISLE, Pa. – The Ursinus Men's Lacrosse team was unable to hold onto an early fourth quarter lead as they were defeated 13-12 by seventh-ranked Dickinson on Wednesday night in the Centennial Conference Tournament semifinals.
With the loss, the Bears conclude their 2022 season 8-8 overall while the Red Devils improve to 17-0 and will take on Gettysburg for the Centennial Conference Championship on Saturday.
The Red Devils broke a scoreless tie halfway through the first quarter at the 7:45-mark before the Bears answered just 26 seconds later when junior Jeremy Calabro scored after Ursinus won the ensuing faceoff. Dickinson then netted the next two goals and took a 3-1 lead at the 12:54-mark of the second quarter. Calabro cut the lead down to 3-2 at the 12:30-mark after junior Tyler Neal found him wide open on the right side of the crease. Neal followed with his first goal of the game at the 5:52-mark of the second quarter to tie the game at three and senior Tommy Reinhart put the Bears in front for the first time in the game just 28 seconds later with his first tally. Dickinson kept the back-and-forth action going by tying the game at four, but Calabro put the Bears in front going into the half with his third goal of the game at the 1:09-mark.
Neal got the Bears going to start the second half by scoring just 1:14 into the new quarter to give Ursinus its first multi-goal lead of the contest at 6-4. The Red Devils responded with a goal to make it 6-5, but Ursinus once again had an answer as junior Jake Ojert found open space and scored to bring the score to 7-5. However, Dickinson recorded back-to-back goals and tied the game for the first time in the second half at seven apiece. Ursinus took advantage of a man-up opportunity at the 5:37-mark of the third quarter when Erik Ojert found Calabro in the center once again for his fourth goal and put the Bears back in front at 8-7. The Red Devils then grabbed their first lead of the contest at 9-8 since being up 3-2 in the second quarter by tallying back-to-back goals once again in the third. The new lead for Dickinson did not last long when Erik Ojert worked around the right side and scored his first of the game to tie the game at nine. Following a Red Devils goal with just over a minute left in the third quarter, Neal struck once more just before the start of the fourth quarter after Jake Ojert dished him the ball with momentum in front of the crease to tie the game at 10. Neal's goal in the final seconds started a three-goal run for the Bears to give them a 12-10 lead with 12 minutes left in regulation. Reinhart gave Ursinus their initial lead at the 13:10-mark before junior Tyler Falco scored his first of the game just 1:10 later. Unfortunately for the Bears, they were unable to withstand three-straight goals from the Red Devils which proved to be the game-winning run. Dickinson tied the game at the 7:58-mark after scoring two goals in a span of 1:29 before netting the decisive go-ahead goal with just 1:41 remaining in regulation.
The Bears held a 43-39 total shot advantage for the contest, but the Red Devils had a 25-21 advantage in shots on goal. Ursinus held a 39-29 edge in ground balls and a 16-12 advantage in faceoff wins as well. Sophomore goalkeeper Jonathan Singer made 12 saves for the Bears while Chris Brandau tallied nine saves for Dickinson during the full 60 minutes of action.