When the Muhlenberg men's lacrosse team led Ursinus 9-1 midway through the second quarter, overtime was probably the last thing on anyone's mind.
But when the Bears stormed back to tie the game by netting the last seven goals of the fourth quarter, overtime became a reality. The Mules still got to celebrate a win, though, as sophomore
Luc Belvill scored with 1:28 left in the extra period for a 15-14 victory.
The win was the fourth straight for the Mules (9-6, 4-2), who are in fourth place in the Centennial Conference with two games remaining in the regular season.
Belvill scored the first goal of the game too, finding the back of the net less than two minutes after the opening whistle. It was the first of seven first-quarter goals for Muhlenberg, tying the school record for a CC game set against McDaniel in 2022.
Six different players scored goals in the first quarter, with sophomore
Aidan Fairweather accounting for two goals. Fairweather and freshman
Connor Sutton scored 17 seconds apart in the last 30 seconds of the quarter, and goals by junior
Flynn Decker and freshman
Parker Kusko in the second quarter extended the margin to 9-1.
The Bears (4-9, 0-7) closed to within 12-7 in the third quarter before junior
Liam Ledwith notched his first goal of the season. Sutton scored again in the fourth to make it 14-7.
Ursinus came all the way back, scoring the tying goal with just over 30 seconds remaining. Muhlenberg won the ensuing faceoff but could not get off a shot and headed to overtime for the first time this season.
After the Bears won the opening faceoff of overtime, junior
Brendan Boyd caused a turnover about a minute into their possession. The Mules were called for offside, but just seconds later Ursinus threw the ball out of bounds to give possession back to Muhlenberg.
With the possession clock ticking down to 10 seconds, Belvill took a pass from junior
Daniel Friedel, weaved around a defender, and went low to beat the Ursinus goalie.
Friedel finished with three goals, and so did Kusko, who tied the school record of eight hat tricks in a season.
Boyd
(pictured above) set a career high with four caused turnovers, while freshman
Drew Pravlik (six), senior
Thomas Olifiers (five) and sophomore
Ryan Schmitz (five) led the Mules in ground balls.
The game marked the first time in their history that the Mules scored at least 15 goals in three consecutive CC games.