GETTYSBURG, Pa. – No. 14 Ursinus College scored the final two goals and held eighth-ranked Gettysburg College scoreless in the fourth quarter on the way to capturing its first Centennial Conference championship with a 10-8 victory at Shirk Field at Musselman Stadium Saturday afternoon.
 
Ursinus (13-3) received the conference's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Championship set to begin next week, while Gettysburg (14-4) must wait to see if its resume is worthy of the national field. The brackets will be revealed at https://www.ncaa.com/sports/lacrosse-men/d3 on Sunday night at 9 p.m.
 
Most Valuable Player Nick Kirk anchored Ursinus to its first CC title by racking up a tournament record 22 saves against the Bullets. Kirk posted eight of those stops in the final quarter as the Bears held the hosts off the scoreboard.
 
Senior Jack Harvey (New Providence, N.J./New Providence), junior Brian Kolen (Bridgewater, N.J./Bridgewater-Raritan), and sophomore Jack Fletcher (Charlotte, N.C./Providence Day School) each scored a pair of goals for Gettysburg. Fletcher also tallied five ground balls and an assist.
 
Bobby McClure and Ben Minardi each tallied three goals for Ursinus, while Hakan Atillasoy and Tommy Reinhart posted two goals and one assist.
 
Harvey put the Bullets in front with the game's first goal and Gettysburg's defense kept the Bears quiet for the majority of the first period, forcing a total of five turnovers and getting three saves from freshman goalie Scott MacMillan (Berwyn, Pa./Conestoga).
 
Riding the wave of momentum from its dramatic last-minute semifinal win at Franklin & Marshall on Wednesday, Ursinus eventually found its groove and ran off four of the final five goals of the first quarter. Atillasoy dished to Minardi for his second goal in the run to give the visitors a 4-2 edge after the first 15 minutes.
 
The Bullets stormed back in the second period as senior Will DeMartin (Summit, N.J./Saint Peter's Prep) kicked off a four-goal run with an unassisted tally at 9:32. Senior Tommy Heller (Livingston, N.J./Livingston) had a hand in the next two goals, dishing off to Harvey before scoring his own goal a minute later to put Gettysburg back in front 5-4. A man-up goal by Kolen completed the run and gave the Bullets a two-goal lead with 4:41 left in the opening half.
 
The Bears worked some magic in the final minutes of the second quarter to tie the game. Atillasoy dashed around the cage and threw a one-handed shot past MacMillan to slice the deficit in half. Just a minute later, Reinhart looked for McClure cutting in front of the goal. The ball caromed off the Ursinus attackman into the netting to tie the contest 6-6 heading into the break.
 
Just a minute into the third period, Minardi gave the Bears a lead temporarily. Fletcher answered right back 41 seconds later to tie the game.
 
Kirk stonewalled the Gettysburg attack over the next 10 minutes, racking up five saves to keep the score deadlocked. Atillasoy gave his team the lead once again with a nifty backward flip in front of the goal with 3:43 remaining in the quarter.
 
Gettysburg was poised to tie things up late in the third quarter when Kirk came up with arguably the play of the game. The Bears turned the ball over on a clear attempt with Fletcher intercepting a pass around midfield. The speedy attackman raced up the field and had a one-on-one with the Bear goalie. Kirk came up with an incredible sprawling save on the point-blank shot by Fletcher to keep his team in front.
 
Fletcher came right back in the final 30 seconds of the period, racing around the cage and finding a seam past Kirk for the equalizer to make it 8-8.
 
The teams appeared headed toward the final quarter all squared, but a turnover following a face-off win by Gettysburg opened the door to a pivotal sequence in the final seconds of the third period. The Bears recovered the ball and rocketed a pass up the field to McClure, who found an opening around two defenders for the go-ahead goal with only five seconds left in the frame.
 
The Bullets could not find a way past Kirk in the final quarter of play as the Ursinus goalie finished with eight saves in the period. McClure added some insurance with the game's final goal with 7:49 remaining. Kirk stopped three shots on goal over a 25-second span late in the period and set the new CC Tournament record for saves in a game on an attempt by Harvey with 1:32 left.
 
Gettysburg led in shots (47-40), ground balls (42-35), and face-off wins (12-10).
 
Junior Christian Atalese (Long Valley, N.J./West Morris Central) picked up seven ground balls and two caused turnovers. Junior Mitch Wykoff (Fairfield, Conn./Fairfield Ludlowe) racked up six ground balls and two caused turnovers, while sophomore Andrew Horn (Bronxville, N.Y./Avon Old Farms) corralled four ground balls. MacMillan finished with 11 saves.