SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - Senior attack Emmett Edwards (Sunderland, Vt.) paced the Wheaton College (Mass.) men's lacrosse team with five points on four goals, but the Lyons came up short as they fell 12-14 to Springfield College in Saturday's New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference contest. 

Wheaton fell to 9-4 overall and 2-3 in the NEWMAC following the loss. Springfield improved to 8-4 overall and 4-1 in the NEWMAC after the win.

Edwards led the Wheaton offense with five points on four goals, but sophomore Zac DiLauri (Parsippany, N.J.) finished a point behind him with two goals and two assists. Juniors Theo Stamatel (Plainville, Mass.) and Evan Paturzo (Bellingham, Mass.) each finished with two goals, and senior Charlie Goodrich (Fairfield, Conn.) had two points with a goal and assist. Junior Lucas Mehlhorn (South Portland, Maine) picked up a goal and junior netminder Evan Borchert (Littleton, Colo.) made 17 saves across the 60 minute contest. 

Springfield was led by senior Matt Webb (Northport, N.Y.) as he finished with a game high of six points on three goals and three assists. Junior Jake Degnan (Mahopac, N.Y.) and sophomore Ryan Berkel (Sudbury, Mass.) both finished with four points as the former scored once and assisted thrice and the latter netted a hat-trick and assisted once. Senior Brady Soldo (Shrewsbury, Mass.) and sophomore Charlie Vath (Southington, Conn.) both scored twice while sophomore face off specialist Dominic Savastano (South Salem, N.Y.) picked up an assist while winning 21 of his 29 face offs. 

Wheaton started the scoring in the first quarter with a goal just 43 seconds into the contest. DiLauri made it 1-0 for the Lyons after picking up a rebound, but Webb responded with his first goal of the game two minutes later. Savastano won the resulting face-off, and helped spark another goal for the hosts just seconds after their first. Paturzo answered back with an unassisted goal 95 seconds later, knotting the score at 2-2. Wheaton managed to preserve the tie despite going a man-down, but the Pride came through with a goal seven minutes before the break. Goodrich was able to pot a goal a minute later to tie the game once more, but Berkel wiped it away with a goal of his own seven seconds later. Edwards repeated Berkel's accomplishment just nine seconds later, tying the game back up at 4-4 with the third goal in 16 seconds of play. DiLauri added one more goal to give Wheaton the lead before the break, but the end was far from near.

Berkel exploded out of the gates in the second quarter, scoring the tying goal in just 46 seconds. Springfield was the benefactor of a long spell of possession, but Borchert stood tall to preserve the 5-5 deadlock. The Pride managed to slip one past Borchert to take the lead midway through the frame, but Edwards scored again to knot the score back up at 6-6. Edwards found Paturzo open in the middle to score the go-ahead goal ahead of halftime, giving Wheaton a 6-5 lead at the intermission. 

Neither team scored in the first five minutes of the second half, but Stamatel had enough of the drought and scored off of a feed from DiLauri to give Wheaton an 8-6 lead, their largest yet. Springfield had a response, and it was strong as they scored twice inside of a minute to tie the game once again at 8-8. Berkel found Webb open with space to shoot, which resulted in the go-ahead goal for Springfield at 9-8. Edwards tied it up to complete the hat-trick, but again the Pride were able to score within the minute. Springfield carried a 10-9 lead into the final quarter. 

Edwards kicked off the fourth frame with a goal in just 50 seconds, but the celebration was short-lived as Webb scored again two minutes later. Berkel and Vath scored in the following minutes, and the Pride opened up their largest lead of the day at an opportune time. Stamatel and Mehlhorn scored inside of the final nine minutes, bringing the Lyons within a goal, but Vath delivered a finishing blow with less-than two minutes to play. Wheaton forced two saves out of the Pride's first year goalkeeper, Joseph Grenier (Cheshire, Conn.) but the Lyons would fail to score at the death. Wheaton fell to Springfield 12-14.

The Lyons will celebrate senior day and their final home game of the regular season on Saturday, April 18 at 1:00 p.m. versus MIT. Springfield heads to Poughkeepsie, N.Y. to play Vassar College on Wednesday at 4:00 pm.