ALLENTOWN, Pa. – The No. 15 Ursinus College men's lacrosse team had the last laugh in a game of streaks at Muhlenberg on Wednesday night, emerging from a double-overtime instant classic with a 13-12 Centennial Conference victory.
Hakan Atillasoy was the hero, scoring the game-tying goal with 12.8 seconds remaining in regulation and the winner with 3:11 left in the second overtime period to lift the Bears (3-2, 3-2) to sudden victory.
Atillasoy finished with a game-high four goals and added an assist, in the process becoming the sixth player in school history to eclipse 150 career points. Erik Ojert turned in the best performance of his career, going off for two goals and a career-high four assists, while Tyler Neal registered a hat-trick and Ben Goetz netted his first two goals of the season.
Chris Porzelt was a stalwart in the cage, racking up a career-high 19 saves.
Opportunism was the word of the day for the Bears, who scored all five goals in the third quarter – including a back-breaker at the buzzer – to overturn a three-goal halftime deficit.
Ursinus capitalized on a bevy of loose-ball opportunities in the game-turning stretch. Goetz and Jerry Bardol each scored on rebounds that just eluded the grasp of Muhlenberg goalie Max May, depositing into open nets to trim the margin to one. After Atillasoy scored on a fake-high, shoot-low to tie it, Ojert gave the Bears the upper hand again by picking up a ball that slipped out of May's stick and firing into an empty cage at the 4:11 mark of the third.
The teams looked destined to go into the fourth quarter with the same 9-8 scoreline, but Ojert and Tommy Reinhart pulled a magic act in the final seconds. With just 2.8 ticks showing on the clock and Ojert keying a restart, the sophomore rifled a quick pass to Reinhart, who snagged it in front of the cage and slammed it home as the buzzer sounded to hand the Bears a two-goal edge.
It was 11-9 in favor of Ursinus after Neal scored with 2 seconds on the shot clock and 9:21 left in regulation, but the Mules (3-4, 3-2) responded with three unanswered tallies of their own and went back ahead, 12-11, on a man-up marker with 3:44 left.
Ursinus staved off Muhlenberg's upset bid when Atillasoy found the lower right corner in the waning seconds. After neither side found a breakthrough in the first overtime, Joshua Toth won the faceoff and Tre Tillman controlled the ground ball to give the Bears first crack at a winner. Atillasoy obliged with a trademark shot to the bottom right corner.
It was another heartbreaker for the Mules, whose four losses this season have come by a total of five goals, and two were in overtime.
Muhlenberg jumped out to a 3-1 first-quarter lead, but the Bears went on a 10-minute stretch of dominance to flip the game on its head. Atillasoy scored off a nifty spin move, and just 17 seconds later the teams were level as Ojert found Goetz in transition for the junior's first goal of the year.
Ursinus went on top for the first time courtesy of Neal, who danced around X and slid a shot past the Mule goalie with 1:03 to play in the first period. The Bears extended their lead to 5-3 on a goal by Ojert, who found himself uncovered on the wing and lined up a left-handed rocket.
That was the last bit of good news for Ursinus in the first half. The Mules scored the final five goals of the second quarter, including two in a 7-second burst to go up 7-5. Matt Marella's third goal of the night on an extra-man opportunity made it a three-goal game with 2:01 to play in the half, and the Bears went to the break trailing 8-5.
The halftime deficit could well have been larger if not for Porzelt, who matched his season high with 11 saves in the first two periods alone.
Ojert came into the game with seven career points and nearly matched that in one night. He had three assists in the second half alone, including on Atillasoy's late equalizer.
Wednesday's game was about as even as it could have been. Ursinus got off 51 shots to the Mules' 50, while Muhlenberg held a 16-13 edge in faceoffs and a 34-29 advantage on ground balls. The teams combined for just 23 turnovers (12 for Muhlenberg, 11 for Ursinus), and the game only broke out of a two-goal window once.
The Bears wrap up their season at McDaniel on Saturday.