COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus Men's Lacrosse team earned a critical 12-10 Centennial Conference win over Franklin & Marshall on a windy Saturday afternoon at Patterson Field.
 
 
With the win, the Bears improved to 7-6 overall and 3-2 in Centennial Conference action as they are set to enter the final two weeks of the regular season. Meanwhile, the Diplomats fell to 6-8 overall and 0-5 in conference play.
 
 
The Diplomats took advantage of a turnover and got on the board first with a quick transition goal at the 13:30-mark of the first quarter. Sophomore Chris Bryant quickly answered a minute later to make it 1-1 to set the tone for a back and forth affair. F&M snuck one by to regain the lead at 2-1 at the 11:06-mark and Bryant answered again just 42 seconds later to the game at two. The Diplomats converted off a clock violation by the Bears to go back up 3-2 at the 8:39-mark of the first quarter before senior Drake Kasoff knotted the game back up once more with a goal in front of the left crease. Ursinus gained their first lead of the game at the 3:50-mark when sophomore Harry Sweitzer converted off a man-up opportunity behind a long rip from 15 yards out. However, the lead did not last long as the Diplomats closed out the first quarter with back-to-back goals to gain a 5-4 lead into the second quarter. The Bears put together the biggest goal run by either squad in the second quarter by scoring three straight to go up 7-5 with 7:20 left in the first half. Sophomore Barrett Denlinger started the run at the 12:43-mark and classmate Aidan Kirk followed just over a minute later to put the Bears in front. Senior Jeff Douglas made a heads up play to set up the goal after swatting a loose ground ball from an errant Diplomat pass that Kasoff scooped up before it went out of bounds on the Bears end. Sophomore Lars Homan completed the run with his first tally of the game. F&M made it a one-goal game just 38 seconds later after scoring following a fight for a ground ball in front of the Bears crease.
 
 
Junior Christopher Pucciarelli scored the second half's first goal in a big way with a brilliant behind-the-back goal at the 9:42-mark after getting a feed from Sweitzer to make it 8-6. The Diplomats used another Bears turnover to score and cut the deficit down to 8-7 at the 5:24-mark. Following a failed clear, Homan got his hands free and scored his second goal of the game at the 11:17-mark of the fourth quarter that made it 9-7. The Diplomats responded following a lengthy possession to bring the score to 9-8 with 6:45 left in regulation to be only answered by Pucciarelli just over a minute later that made it 10-8. The Diplomats refused to go away as they took advantage of another Bears turnover to make it a 10-9 game, but Ursinus netted two straight goals to decisively lock up the win. Kasoff tapped in his second in front of the crease after a pass from Kirk and Kirk capped the Ursinus scoring with his second at the 2:39-mark.
 
The Bears held a 46-31 advantage in shots and a 19-15 edge in shots on goal. The story, however, was pure dominance in the faceoff circle by the Bears as they won 21 of the 26 faceoffs in the game which led to a sizable 43-27 advantage in ground balls. Junior Dominic Nottoli was a near-perfect 12-of-14 in the faceoff X while sophomore Nils Updale was equally effective at 9-of-12. Senior goalkeeper Jonathan Singer earned the win after making five saves in the full 60 minutes while Diplomats goalkeeper Teddy Scarborough tallied seven during the full contest. Kirk, Kasoff, Holman, and Pucciarelli all notched two goals in a balanced scoring effort for the Bears.
 
 
Ursinus returns to action on Wednesday, April 17th as they will travel to face No. 11 Swarthmore at 4:00 p.m.