WALTHAM, Mass. – Bentley pushed No. 4 Dowling to the limit on Saturday, but the Golden Lions hung on in the final seconds for a 7-6 victory in a non-conference men's lacrosse matchup on Saturday afternoon.

With the Falcons trailing 7-4 with just over seven minutes left in the game, senior Brendan Grant (Walpole, Mass./Xaverian Brothers) got them to within two with a man-up goal. After that, neither team was able to score for six minutes until senior J.D. Ayer (Rochester, N.Y./McQuaid Jesuit) made it 7-6 with 1:02 remaining.

Junior Louis Riley then won the ensuing face-off for Dowling, and they were able to milk the clock down until Bentley forced a turnover and called a timeout with 14 seconds left to set up the final play. The Falcons though weren't able to get a shot off and Dowling hung on for its seventh win of the season.

Senior Richard Travers (Longmeadow, Mass./Longmeadow) opened the scoring for Bentley just 37 seconds into the first quarter, but that was their only goal of the quarter and Dowling netted three to lead 3-1 after 15 minutes.

The Falcons though turned things around in the second quarter with a strong defensive effort, keeping the Golden Lions off the scoreboard entirely and getting goals from Justin Holmes (Brookfield, Conn./Berkshire School) and Ayer to send the game into halftime tied.

Dowling, however, got the better of the third quarter. The teams traded goals over the first 3:30, with Grant scoring for Bentley, to make the score 4-4. Dowling took the lead at the 10:22 mark on a goal by midfielder Tom Cleary, and Cleary scored the only other goal of the quarter with 1:43 left to give them a 6-4 advantage going into the fourth quarter.

Bentley, which is now 1-5 on the season, returns to Northeast-10 play on Tuesday night when they host Assumption at 7:00 p.m.