COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus Men's Lacrosse team knocked off No. 10 Franklin & Marshall 14-13 on Saturday afternoon at Patterson Field on Saturday afternoon in Centennial Conference action.

With the win, the Bears improved to 6-6 overall and 3-2 in Centennial Conference play and stay in the thick of the Centennial Conference race. Meanwhile, the Diplomats fall to 10-4 overall and 3-3 in conference play.

The Diplomats struck first on their initial possession of the game to go up 1-0 at the 12:55-mark, but the Bears quickly responded to tie the game at one when sophomore Brett Wilkinson beat the Diplomats goalkeeper from 10 yards out. Senior Tommy Reinhard put the Bears in front for the first time of the contest at 8:14-mark on a man-up goal before the Diplomats responded themselves just under four minutes later to tie the game at two after a quick clear following a turnover. Ursinus cashed in on the man-up once more just 48 seconds later when junior Jeremy Calabro tallied his first of the contest after Neal dished it to him with space on the left side of the crease. The Diplomats tied the game at three with just over a minute left in the quarter until Wilkinson netted his second at the 48-second mark to give the Bears the lead into the second quarter. After winning the first faceoff of the second quarter, F&M tied the game again at four on their first possession. Calabro put the Bears back in front at the 11:08-mark on a dazzling behind-the-back goal and junior Chase Rondeau followed 34 seconds later to give Ursinus a multi-goal lead for the first time in the contest. It took the Diplomats just 11 seconds to cut the lead down to 6-5, but the Bears reeled off four-straight goals to take a 10-5 advantage at the 4:11-mark. Calabro scored the first two goals of the run for the Bears and junior Erik Ojert netted the third on a nifty shot across the crease. Calabro then repaid the favor to Jake Ojert to cap the run for Ursinus. F&M ended the run just over a minute later to make it a 10-6 game before junior Tyler Falco added one more goal for the Bears to send them into the half up 11-6.

The Bears struggled to get much going to start the second half which allowed the Diplomats to make a run behind three-straight goals to cut the deficit down to 11-10 with 1:56 remaining in the third quarter. Reinhart ended the run with a long blast from 15 yards out to give the Bears a 12-10 lead that stayed the same into the final 15 minutes. The Diplomats scored just 14 seconds into the fourth quarter to make it a 12-11 game and tied the game for the first time since the score was 4-4 at the 11:14-mark. Senior Stephen Schoenborn delivered for the Bears at the 10:05-mark to bring the score to 13-12, but the Diplomats answered on a man-up situation just under two minutes later, tying the game at 13. Schoenborn found the back of the net again with 5:38 remaining in regulation to put the Bears up 14-13 and setting the stage for a wild five minutes of action. The Bears forced a Diplomats turnover and held kept possession for nearly two minutes which included a shot ringing off the post. Sophomore Joshua Toth broke up a Diplomats pass following a clear attempt to give the Bears the ball back with just under two minutes to go. An Ursinus turnover gave the Diplomats one last chance to potentially tie the game as they took a timeout with 39 seconds left. Senior goalkeeper Chris Porzelt, who entered the game in relief during the fourth quarter with the score tied, made the biggest save of the day with 21 seconds left while Toth followed by grabbing the loose ground ball and somehow getting the ball to Neal on the other side of the field to get a successful clear. Neal had his stick knocked from his hands with six seconds left, but the Diplomats ran out of time before getting a shot off to lock the win up for the Bears.

The Bears held a slight 49-42 edge in shots and a 26-22 advantage in shots on goal. The Diplomats had a 35-30 advantage in ground balls while the Bears held a 17-13 edge in faceoff wins. Porzelt earned the win for the Bears after making two key saves in the final 8:09 of action. Sophomore goalkeeper Jonathan Singer made seven saves in 51:51 of action while Diplomats goalkeeper Sage Garito suffered the loss after making 12 saves. Calabro recorded a career-high six points on four goals and two assists while Wilkinson, Schoenborn, and Reinhart all netted two goals apiece. Neal recorded a trio of assists on the Bears first three goals of the game.

Ursinus returns to action on Wednesday, April 20th as they will travel to face Swarthmore at 4 p.m. in Centennial Conference action.