SCRANTON, Pa.– Eastern University Men's Lacrosse (2-6) saw a late lead slip away and fell 16-15 in overtime in a back-and-forth affair at the University of Scranton. Nate Portray scored four of his game-high five goals in the fourth quarter, but it was not enough as the host Royals scored three times in the final three minutes of regulation to force the extra period.

After Nick Litzenberger scored the opening goal of the fourth quarter to tie the game at 10-10, the Royals scored twice to build a 12-10 lead with 12 minutes left. Portrey then found his advantage and took it. After Pat McClain won the faceoff, Portrey picked up a pass near the top of the box and moved downhill. His hard shot beat the goalie to pull the Eagles to within a goal. Eaastern won the ensuing faceoff, but the Royals won possession back on a save and Portrey got stuck playing defense. 

He locked off his man for a successful defensive possession and ran forward with the clear. He again moved down the right alley and powered home a goal to tie the game with nine minutes left. The senior midfielder scored twice more in the next three minutes and Connor Killion added a goal for a 15-12 lead with six minutes to play.

The Eagles lost the faceoff after the Killion goal but had two turnover-shortened possessions and a penalty that allowed the Royals a chance to to pull within two with more than three minutes left. The Royals capitalized. 

Up two, the Eagles again had the ball after an Ethan Myers save, but another turnover allowed the Royals a chance to halve the lead again. They scored with 1:06 on the clock.

The Royals shot wide with under a minute to play and it appeared that Myers won the race to back up the shot. The Eastern goalie thought he heard a timeout granted and put the ball down, but the game restarted. The Royals tied the game with 20 seconds to play. 

McClain won the final faceoff of regulation and Litzenberger got a look after a timeout, but Scranton goalie Evan Rosa made the save to send the game to overtime. Both teams had possessions in overtime, but the Royals capitalized on a left-handed shot from Mike Bouhall with 2:17 on the clock. 

The Eagles led 4-2 at the end of the first quarter and were up 5-2 after Christopher Fanelli scored early in the second. The Royals led 6-5 and 7-7 before the Fanelli brothers closed out the first half with three goals. Nicholas Fanelli scored with 1:55 on the clock to tie the game and again on the ensuing faceoff. Nathan Gilbert provided the assist. The Eagles had a final possession with less than two seconds between the game clock and the possession clock. Nicholas worked up field against heavy pressure to fire a back-handed shot just before the possession clock expired. Rosa made the save but Christopher was on the spot to tuck away his 11th goal of the year. 

The Royals scored all three goals in the third quarter.

Myers finished with 21 saves. Rosa had 17 for the Royals. McClain won 20-of-34 faceoffs and had a game-high 14 ground balls. 

Eastern will play at Cabrini on Saturday at 1:00 pm. It will be the first game between the two neighboring schools since Eastern lost at Cabrini in the NCAA Tournament in 2012.