WALTHAM, Mass. – Bentley gave a spirited effort against unbeaten and second-ranked Le Moyne on Saturday, but the Dolphins came away with a 9-5 victory on Saturday in a Northeast-10 men's lacrosse showdown.

The Falcons were within 5-4 after senior J.D. Ayer (Rochester, N.Y./McQuaid Jesuit) scored at the 10:11 mark of the third quarter. After almost six minutes without a goal, Le Moyne scored the next one from Connor Regin to go up 6-4, and that proved to be the turning point of the game. Bentley was called for a two-minute penalty as the goal was scored to give Le Moyne a lengthy man-up advantage.

The Falcons killed off more than a minute of the penalty, but Le Moyne finally scored with 31 seconds left on the man-advantage off the stick of Chris Button to go up 7-4.

That was the first of three straight goals for Button, who scored the next two at the 13:56 and 6:01 marks of the fourth quarter to give Le Moyne a 9-4 lead.

Prior to Button's first goal, Bentley went step-for-step with Le Moyne. They trailed 2-0 after the first quarter, but a back-and-forth second quarter produced six goals and ended with the Dolphins leading 5-3 at halftime.

Richard Travers (Longmeadow, Mass./Longmeadow) and Bobby Hinds (West Hartford, Conn./Conard) scored back-to-back goals in the second quarter to tie the game at two. After Aaron Cahill netted one for Le Moyne with 7:31 left in the half, Steve Caditz (Mercer Island, Wash./Mercer Island) answered back for Bentley 25 seconds later to tie the score at three. Le Moyne though scored the final two goals of the half from Nick Blumer to lead 5-3 at the break.

Both goalies played well, as Brian Karl (New Canaan, Conn./New Canaan) made 11 saves for Bentley and Jeff White stopped 14 shots for the Dolphins, who improve to 12-0 on the season and 7-0 in the NE-10. Bentley's records go to 2-6 and 2-3.

Bentley is back in action on Tuesday night when they travel to Southern New Hampshire.