AMHERST, MA- The Wheaton College men's lacrosse team rallied from a late two-goal deficit to forge a tie with New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) foe Amherst College before the Lord Jeffs scored the winner with 28.3 seconds remaining for an 11-10 win on Wednesday in non-conference action at Gooding Field.

In dropping to 2-3, the Lyons narrowly fell short of earning their first win in four all-time meetings with Amherst, as they exceeded their cumulative goal total from the first three match-ups. The Lord Jeffs, who suffered one two-goal loss this season to a team that is currently nationally ranked and another two-marker setback to a squad receiving votes, improved to 2-3.

Sophomore Billy McNamara (Mansfield, MA/Northfield Mount Hermon School) paced Wheaton with three goals and three assists, while junior Chris Landers (Manchester, MA/Proctor Academy) turned in two markers and a helper. Senior Drew Schaffer (New Haven, CT/Loomis Chaffee School) scored twice, and junior Ben Cederberg (Duxbury, MA/Duxbury) scored once and assisted two more. Senior Schuyler Horn (New Hartford, CT/Kingswood-Oxford School) made 16 saves, and classmate Warren Garceau (Guilford, CT/Canterbury School) won 14 draws.

Senior Tom McDonnell (Manhasset, NY/Manhasset) and sophomore Alex Fox (Garden City, NY/Chaminade) each netted hat tricks for Amherst, classmate Dan Routh (Allendale, NJ/Northern Highlands Regional) had two goals and an assist, and sophomore Evan Redwood (Lutherville, MD/Gilman School) scored twice. Classmate Sam Jakimo (Woodbury, NY/Syosset) turned aside 14 shots.

Wheaton trailed by a 10-8 count after Routh's goal with 5:09 remaining in regulation before rallying. Landers netted a man-up tally with 3:18 left before Cederberg forged the fourth tie of the game at the 1:44 mark, but Amherst converted an extra-man opportunity of its own when Redwood found the back of the net with 28.3 ticks to go.

The visitors found themselves down by two goals after one period and still trailed 4-2 during the second quarter before McNamara tallied at 6:04 and 32 seconds to send the squads into halftime knotted at four.

An Amherst third-quarter flurry put the hosts on top 8-4, as four Lord Jeff tallies came in a 7:23 stretch, but Wheaton again worked to tie the game. Landers and McNamara both scored in the final 59 seconds of the third, Garceau tallied at 12:19 of the fourth, and McNamara found Schaffer for the equalizer at 7:35. However, McDonnell put Amherst back on top just 38 seconds later, and Routh's marker with a little more than five minutes to go set up the exciting finish.

Wheaton opens Pilgrim League play on Saturday by hosting Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) at 1:00 p.m.