ERIE, Pa. – Wheeling Jesuit men's lacrosse suffered a tough late-match loss, 10-9, at No. 15 Mercyhurst on Saturday afternoon in the season finale.
 
Tied at 8-8 with 13 minutes left, the Lakers' Cory Becker scored back-to-back goals in a 1:09 span for a two-goal lead, 10-8. The Cardinals' Dereck Downs pulled his team to within one, 10-9, with 4:32 remaining, but the visitors were unable to get the tying score on three final shot attempts in the final two minutes.
 
Downs and Tyler Buchan paced the WJU (8-6/3-4 Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference) attack with three goals apiece.
 
Bryce Brochu added two scores and assisted on another. Matt Lee contributed the final Cardinal goal and McLean Fitzmartin had one assist.
 
Wheeling Jesuit outshot Mercyhurst, 32-30, and scooped more ground balls, 25-18. The Lakers (8-5/5-2 ECAC) forced more turnovers, 16-12.
 
Evan Hodel led the WJU defense with six ground balls, while Zak Semere won 7-of-10 face-offs and had five ground balls. Corey Luebbe forced two turnovers and grabbed four ground balls. Jack Brandenburg rounded out the effort with three ground balls and a caused turnover.
 
WJU goalie Collin Smith saves 11 Mercyhurst shot attempts.
 
The Lakers' Trevor Vargo led all scorers with five goals and an assist.
 
The Cardinals opened a 6-2 lead over the first 27:48 of the first half. After Buchan and Brochu goals, Downs added a pair to end the first period ahead, 4-2. Brochu and Lee gave WJU its 6-2 advantage.
 
The nationally-ranked Lakers (8-5/5-2 ECAC) bounced back to score twice in the final 1:23 of the first half for the 6-4 intermission tally.
 
Mercyhurst kept the momentum on its side in the third period. The home team scored four of the five third-period goals, including a Vargo score with 1:34 on the clock for an 8-7 lead.
 
Buchan tied the match, 8-8, for Wheeling Jesuit with 1:39 into the final period on a pass from Brochu.
 
Becker had the two shots of the day with back-to-back Mercyhurst goals for the two-goal lead, 10-8. The Lakers held off three Cardinal shots in six seconds with 1:46 left in the match from Buchan, Duston Doudelet and Downs and sealed their win.
 
The Cardinals finish the year with at least eight wins for the fourth year in a row.