The Oglethorpe men's lacrosse team outscored the visiting Millsaps Majors 5-2 in the fourth quarter of their final game of the season Sunday at the Oglethorpe Track and Field, holding onto a 1-goal lead in the final 30 seconds to secure a 13-12 win for their first-ever SAA victory. The victory also serves as their first of the year overall and means that they finish in seventh place in the league standings, marking the highest they've ever finished in the SAA and tying for their highest conference finish ever.

Down 10-8 entering the fourth quarter, the Petrels responded in a big way, scoring five straight goals to wrest control of the game from the Majors and build a 13-10 lead with 4:15 to go. Freshman middie Tyler Stridiron began the scoring with 13:26 left in the game, making it 10-9. Sophomore attackman John Hood then followed up to tie the score with 12:05 to play. The Petrels took the lead less than 30 seconds later when junior attackman Andrew Houghton found the cage to make it 11-10. The home side was then able to expand its lead out with another goal from Stridiron with 6:18 remaining and what turned out to be a huge goal from freshman middie Thomas O'Berry with 4:15 to play.

With a 13-10 lead, the Petrels set about trying to make the lead stand up for their first SAA win. Millsaps drew a goal closer with 1:16 left, then pulled to within a single goal, 13-12, with 30 seconds remaining. Freshman defenseman Andrew Kwapil won the crucial faceoff, though, with freshman middie Nathaniel Gillespie picking up the ground ball. The Petrels were then able to play keep-away for the remainder of the contest, giving them the 13-12 win.

Leading 7-6 after the halftime break, Millsaps outscored the Petrels 3-2 in the third quarter to build their 10-8 lead. The Petrels stayed in it, though, picking up a man-up goal from Stridiron and a tally from Gillespie, who broke the single-season program record for goals on the afternoon. He finishes the season with 31 goals, scoring four on the day. 

The Petrels took a brief lead in the second period. After the Majors scored back-to-back goals to give themselves a 5-3 lead early in the quarter, the Petrels responded with three straight tallies of their own. Hood scored twice, sandwiched around a Gillespie goal, to give Oglethorpe a 6-5 lead with 8:36 remaining in the half. Millsaps answered that with back-to-back goals to take a 7-6 lead going into the break.

The first quarter saw Millsaps bounce out to a 3-1 lead, but the Petrels scored consecutive markers to end the quarter and tie things at 3-3. Gillespie scored twice in the period and Hood's goal with 25 seconds left made it 3-3 through the opening 15 minutes.

Hood joined Gillespie with four goals of his own, putting seven of his eight shots on target. Freshman goalie Lane Edwards extended his single-season record for saves, tallying 24 more on the afternoon to finish with a whopping 238 on the season.

The Petrels won the game despite being outshot 69-36 overall and 36-25 on goal. The 24 saves Edwards made proved to be a huge difference in the contest. 

"Getting our first-ever SAA win is a fantastic result to finish the season on," said Oglethorpe head coach Nathan Young. "The guys faced such adversity throughout this whole year. They fought hard not only in today's game, but over the course of the entire season. I could not be any prouder of these guys and of the character that they showed to push through the struggles of this season. They truly are why I coach at Oglethorpe and why this program will be successful for years-to-come."