GETTYSBURG, Pa. – Another barn-burner in a series fraught with recent thrillers left the Ursinus College men's lacrosse team on the short side of a top-15 slugfest with Gettysburg, which walked off the Battlefield with a 10-9 victory on a goal with 8 seconds remaining in overtime.
Aaron Grill had three goals and an assist for the Bears (1-1, 1-1), who led 8-7 going into the fourth quarter of an epic duel that neither side led by more than two all afternoon. The Bullets (2-0, 2-0) battled back to take a 9-8 lead before Tommy Reinhart's stunning, over-the-head goal on a feed from Jake Ojert knotted the score with 2:47 remaining and sent the rivals into an extra session.
Both sides had chances in the overtime period, with the Bullets coming up short twice and turning it over to the Bears on a failed clear. Ursinus had three cracks at a game-winner, but missed wide each time and eventually gave the ball back on a shot-clock violation. Gettysburg raced up the field and won it on Jack Fletcher's individual effort.
The Bears have only one win against the Bullets in their history – the 2019 Centennial Conference championship game. But the series has been remarkably tight in recent years, with three of the last four meetings decided by two goals or less.
This one was no exception, as neither team could gain much of a foothold in an evenly matched struggle.
Tommy Reinhart opened the scoring just over a minute in, and Grill gave the Bears the lead again with the first tally of his hat trick. Gettysburg answered with a three-goal run before Ursinus gradually began to take command.
Trailing 4-3 entering the second, the Bears potted three straight extra-man markers (the last two by Grill) to go up 6-4 at the 10:18 mark of the period. The Bullets got within one at half, but Hakan Atillasoy restored the margin with an unassisted tally at 10:45 of the third.
Gettysburg came back swinging again, scoring two straight to pull even until Grill set up Tyler Falco's go-ahead goal with 4:48 to go in the third. That was all the offense the Bears could muster until Reinhart's late equalizer.
Falco and Atillasoy each produced a goal and two assists, while Tyler Neal finished with a goal and an assist after his 10-point explosion in the team's opening win over Washington College.
Chris Porzelt made 10 saves for the Bears, who took more shots (43-37), won more faceoffs (11-9), and collected more ground balls (25-17). Both sides were lethal on the extra-man, Ursinus converting 4-of-8 and Gettysburg 4-of-9.
Ursinus looks to bounce back on Saturday against Dickinson.