Syracuse, N.Y. – Senior attackman Joey Pezzimenti (Victor, N.Y./Victor/UAlbany) scored his third goal of the fourth quarter with 52 seconds remaining to give the Le Moyne College men's lacrosse team a 10-9 come-from-behind victory over the College of the Holy Cross on Thursday afternoon at Ted Grant Field. The Dolphins finish their first season at the Division I level with a 3-8 record.

The teams traded goals in the opening quarter. Jude Lynch started the scoring at the 10:15 mark with his eighth goal of the season to get the Crusaders on the scoreboard. Senior defenseman Justin Chenaille (Delmar, N.Y./Bethlehem) evened the score at one apiece just under three minutes later with the first goal of his career after taking a feed in transition from junior attackman Isaac Frechette (Manlius, N.Y./Fayetteville-Manlius). Following a slashing penalty on the Dolphins, Will Messineo recorded his 12th goal of the year at the 4:30 mark off a pass from Henry Sheehan in the extra-man situation.

Le Moyne evened the score at two with 13:00 left in the second quarter as redshirt junior attackman Ethan Loun (West Linn, Ore./West Linn) finished off a feed from senior midfielder Kyle Caves (Liverpool, N.Y./Liverpool) for his 19th goal of the campaign.

The Crusaders answered with three consecutive goals. William Stahl started the streak with his 15th goal of the year with 10:53 to go. Just 42 seconds later, Messineo scored after taking a pass from Sam McDonald, who also earned the assist on Bo Webster's fourth score of the season with 5:12 left in the half.

The Dolphins capped the scoring in the first half with 4:23 left as graduate student long-stick midfielder Nick Noel (Fulton, N.Y./G. Ray Bodley) scored for the second straight game and for the fifth time in his career after receiving a pass in transition from Loun.

Lynch gave his team a three-goal lead again 1:27 into the third quarter.

Le Moyne countered with back-to-back goals to cut its deficit to one. Redshirt freshman midfielder Thomas Berry (Tully, N.Y./Tully) netted his fifth goal of the season with 12:11 remaining off a feed from senior midfielder Seth Benedict (Stanley, N.Y./Walt Whitman). Following a pushing penalty on the Crusaders, Berry scored from in front of the crease with three seconds left in the extra-man situation off a dish from graduate student midfielder Jack Grooms (Syracuse, N.Y./Westhill/Hobart) at the 9:22 mark.

Holy Cross finished off the scoring in the period with the final three goals for its largest lead of the game. Matt Major, the team's leading scorer, started the push with his 22nd goal of the year with 6:14 left. Just over 90 seconds later, John Mitchell took advantage of a Le Moyne pushing penalty to record his fourth goal of the season off a pass from Stahl. Luca Ward registered his team's final goal of the game with 1:17 left by tallying his 11th goal of the campaign after scooping up a rebound of a saved shot on the crease.

The Dolphins scored all five of the fourth quarter's goals to win the game. Just 41 seconds into the period, Pezzimenti finished off a feed from Caves for his 10th goal of the season. In an extra-man situation awarded to the Dolphins, Pezzimenti scored again 54 seconds later after collecting a feed from the middle of the field from Loun to force a Holy Cross timeout.

Following two empty possessions by each team over the next five minutes, Loun registered his team-best 20th goal of the season after receiving a pass from Pezzimenti with 7:46 remaining in the game. The Dolphins won the ensuing faceoff and after an almost three-minute possession, which was extended by a shot off a post and a Holy Cross timeout, junior attackman Ryan Eisenmann (Boca Raton, Fla./Boca Raton) scored from the left edge of the crease with 4:50 to go off a pass from Caves to knot the score at nine.

Each team had two empty possessions, with neither putting a shot on goal, over the next 3:45. Following Holy Cross's second turnover of the span, redshirt junior short-stick defensive midfielder Dom DelPonte (Upper Saddle, N.J./St. Joseph Regional) collected the loose ball with 1:06 left and raced up field. After Eisenmann received the ball, he sent a pass across the field to Pezzimenti, who fired the ball into the back of the net with 52 seconds left to put the Dolphins in front for the first time.

Le Moyne won the ensuing faceoff and was able to run 43 seconds off the clock before a Holy Cross double team stripped the ball and the Crusaders collected the ball. However, Pezzimenti was able to pressure the Holy Cross defender into an errant pass and the time ran out.

Freshman goalkeeper Lucas Winger (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South) earned his first collegiate victory after making three saves (against two goals) over the final 21:14 of action after coming off the bench. In his 57th and final collegiate game, Noel registered a program record-tying six caused turnovers to go along with five ground balls. Noel joins Nate Arnold '22 (twice in 2021) and Nick Hourigan '15 (4/16/13) as the only Dolphins to record six caused turnovers in a game. Junior Sam Getty (Orchard Park, N.Y./Canisius HS) won all six of the fourth quarter's faceoff to spur the comeback. Dawson Friers suffered the loss between the pipes for the Crusaders after making five saves.