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Matt Brigham
Matt Brigham

Men's Lacrosse Beats Franklin Pierce 9-8 in 3OT on Brigham's Game Winner

RINDGE, N.H. – Freshman Matt Brigham (Portsmouth, R.I./Portsmouth Abbey) scored with one second left in the third overtime to give the Bentley men's lacrosse team a 9-8 victory over Franklin Pierce in a Northeast-10 matchup.

Brigham's goal came after 8:59 of scoreless play over three overtimes to give Bentley its second straight win. The win keeps its playoff hopes alive and improves its record to 4-6 in the NE-10 with  one game left in the season. They will need a win over Adelphi next weekend and a loss by either Southern New Hampshire or Saint Anselm to make the playoffs.

Bentley led by as much as 7-3 after a 5-0 second quarter run was capped by a goal by senior Steve Caditz (Mercer Island, Wash./Mercer Island), who had three goals during the run. The run took less than six minutes and also had goals from freshman Brady Palmer (Wolfeboro, N.H./Brewster Academy) and sophomore Brendan Murphy (Wilmington, Mass./Middlesex Shool).

But Franklin Pierce would score the next four goals, spread out over the second and third quarters, to tie the game at seven. The first two goals came 28 seconds apart in the second quarter, followed by a man-up goal by attacker Casey Burnett early in the third quarter. The Ravens then tied the game at seven on a goal by midfielder Brenden Caldeira at the 4:24 mark.

Bentley went ahead 8-7 on a goal by senior Tim Matheson (Reading, Mass./Reading Memorial) at the 12:40 mark of the fourth quarter, breaking a drought of almost 25 minutes without a goal. But after going without a goal for almost 19 minutes themselves, the Ravens tied it again with just 40 seconds left in regulation on a goal by midfielder Erik Kelly.

The Falcons outshot Franklin Pierce 5-0 in the first overtime but were outshot 4-3 in the second. Bentley had a 2-1 advantage in shots in the third overtime before Brigham scored with one second left on the clock.

Freshman goalie Jarrod Dillon (Braintree, Mass./St. Sebastian's) played every minute in net and made nine saves to earn the win for the Falcons.

Bentley's season finale against Adelphi is next Saturday at 12:00 pm.