Syracuse, N.Y. – Senior attackman Brian Nephew (Irving, N.Y./St. Joseph Collegiate) scored from the crease midway through overtime to give the Le Moyne College men's lacrosse team an 8-7 victory over Robert Morris University in the Northeast Conference regular season finale for both teams on Saturday afternoon at Ted Grant Field.

With the Le Moyne victory, the Dolphins and Colonials share the NEC regular season championship with 6-1 league records and the Dolphins will be the top seed and host in the upcoming NEC Championship. The semifinals will be contested at Ted Grant Field on Thursday with the first game between second-seeded Robert Morris and third-seeded LIU starting at 12:00 p.m. and the second game between Le Moyne and fourth-seeded Detroit Mercy beginning at 4:00 p.m. The championship game will be Saturday at 12:00 p.m. Both semifinal games and the championship game will air on NEC Front Row as well as ESPN+.

The Dolphins scored the only goal of the first quarter in transition with 5:24 remaining. Following an errant shot by the Colonials, sophomore goalkeeper Lucas Winger (Glenview, Ill./Glenbrook South) sent a clearing pass up field to graduate student midfielder Ethan Loun (West Linn, Ore./West Linn), who moved through open space to net his 16th goal of the season.

Robert Morris scored two of the three goals in the second quarter. The Colonials tied the score at one at the 11:57 mark as David Burr fired in a long-range shot off a pass from Graeme MacLennan for his 28th tally of the year. Following eight minutes of scoreless play, Nephew scored his first goal of the day at the 3:53 mark off a pass from sophomore attackman Mason Ciciarelli (Clay, N.Y./Cicero-North Syracuse) to put the Dolphins back in front. Only 41 seconds later, Calum Brennan scored his 35th goal of the campaign after taking a feed from Luke Prezioso to knot the score again.

After the teams traded goals to open the third quarter, Le Moyne rattled off the final three to take a 6-3 advantage. Senior midfielder/attackman Ryan Eisenmann (Boca Raton, Fla./Boca Raton) gave the Dolphins their third lead of the game with his 14th goal of the year with 11:56 left. Brennan answered back with 10:11 remaining off a dish from Kean Moon.

Junior midfielder Zack Crosby (Auburn, N.Y./Auburn) tallied his eighth goal of the campaign with 5:46 to go off a feed from Loun to put the Dolphins back in front. Following five minutes of scoreless play, Nephew found the back of the net with just 41 seconds left after taking a pass in transition from sophomore short-stick defensive midfielder AJ DeMeo (Pittsford, N.Y./Pittsford Sutherland). In a flag-down situation off the ensuing faceoff, Loun tallied his 17th goal of the year with only seven seconds left in the quarter.

After winning the faceoff following Loun's goal during a man-down situation, Robert Morris started the fourth quarter with the ball and cashed in at the 13:47 mark as Prezioso netted his 13th goal of the season. He scored again only 13 seconds later after taking a pass from Nathan Ruff to get the Colonials within 6-5.

Le Moyne pushed its lead back to two, 7-5, only 53 seconds later as redshirt sophomore attackman Thomas Berry (Tully, N.Y./Tully) recorded his 19th goal of the season.

Robert Morris scored the final two goals of regulation to force overtime. Liam Keane scored his seventh goal of the year with 9:18 left after collecting a pass from Kean Moon.

Following five empty possessions by each team over the next nine minutes, including four turnovers by the Dolphins and three by the Colonials, Robert Morris forced overtime as Prezioso scored from the center of the field after taking a pass from Burr with 6.7 seconds remaining.

The Colonials ended up with the ball after the opening faceoff of overtime and called timeout with 3:37 left. Just under 20 seconds later, graduate student short-stick defensive midfielder Dom DelPonte (Upper Saddle, N.J./St. Joseph Regional) forced a turnover and redshirt freshman long-stick midfielder Jake Baker (East Greenbush, N.Y./Columbia) scooped up the ball.

After successfully clearing the ball, the Dolphins called timeout with 2:55 left. Out of the timeout, Eisenmann worked the ball behind the cage before coming around the goalkeeper's right side. From GLE, he sent a pass to the right alley to Nephew, who quick-sticked a shot into the lower left corner of the net at the 2:09 mark for his third goal of the contest.
 
Winger finished the game with 13 saves for the fourth time this season, including five in the first quarter and four in the fourth quarter, to go with four ground balls.  DelPonte finished the contest with three caused turnovers and Baker had a career-best seven ground balls. Nate Fechter posted seven saves in the loss for the Colonials.