COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Hakan Atillasoy reached a major milestone and the No. 15 Ursinus College men's lacrosse team fought off a stern challenge from visiting Dickinson for a 14-9 Centennial Conference victory on Saturday.
Atillasoy scored three goals to become the fourth player in program history to reach 100 for his career, helping the Bears (2-1) bounce back from an overtime heartbreaker at Gettysburg the week prior and down the Red Devils for the first time since 2016. The senior added a pair of assists for a game-high five points and got plenty of early help from Tyler Neal, who matched Atillasoy with a hat trick and added a helper to boot.
A thrilling first quarter gave way to a big Bears run bridging the halftime break, but the hosts had to withstand a Red Devil run that trimmed the lead down to one, 10-9, late in the third period. The home side bore down and scored the last four goals of the afternoon, holding the red and white off the board for the final 20 minutes and change.
The Bears made a living on cutters in the first half, and a few late-clock finishes helped them take a lead into the break. Neal took it himself after a reset and scored with 2 seconds on the shot clock to give Ursinus a 3-2 lead, and Atillasoy's right-handed shot found the top of the cage for a 5-4 lead with just 4.7 ticks showing on the first-quarter timer.
Atillasoy's first goal of the day gave the Bears the upper hand for good, and kick-started a run of five unanswered markers. A brotherly connection from Erik Ojert to Jake Ojert made it 6-4, and two perfect skip passes from Atillasoy set up goals by Neal and Joe Mercurio in a span of 51 seconds before Erik Ojert found a hard-cutting Tre Tillman for the junior's first goal of the season and a 9-4 bulge.
The Red Devils got one back on an extra-man chance, but Ursinus returned fire with a man-down tally of its own as a quick push in transition ended with Ben Goetz dropping a dump-off pass to Neal for a quick riser to make it 10-5. Dickinson responded with consecutive goals by Skyler Schluter in the final 1:02 to pull the visitors within three at the intermission.
After the Red Devils got within one on back-to-back scores from Sascha Gannon, Atillasoy netted the Bears' next two goals. He brushed off a defender to fire a shot past the Dickinson goalie with 3:39 to play in the third, and his century marker came off a turnover as he took a transition feed and beat the defense to the near post for a low shot with 21.5 seconds left.
Ursinus scored a bizarre goal just 10 seconds into the fourth quarter, when the Dickinson goalie received a back pass and took a hit from Erik Ojert, which sent the ball spinning out of his stick and into the net. Neither side dented the scoreboard again until Tommy Reinhart split a double team and finished into an empty cage with 1:47 to go.
Reinhart and Mercurio each scored twice for the Bears, who were active all day on the defensive end. Rookie Joshua Toth won four faceoffs and was one of five Ursinus players to post two caused turnovers. Joining Chase Rondeau, Ben Schroeder, Tillman, and Julian Castilleja. Ursinus forced 31 Dickinson turnovers for the day.
John McKee dominated the faceoff circle for Dickinson, going 17-for-26 and securing nine ground balls. Stroud Corr finished with 13 saves, eight of them after halftime.
The Bears stay on Patterson for a mid-week showdown with Franklin & Marshall on Wednesday, when the 17th-ranked Diplomats come to town for a rematch of last year's Centennial Conference semifinal thriller.