LAKELAND, Fla. – Colorado Mesa men's lacrosse lost its second consecutive game to open its Florida road trip, coming up short in a narrow 13-12 contest to Florida Southern from the Mocs' campus in Lakeland, Florida.

Florida Southern's Caiden Wiech scored with 2:14 left in the fourth quarter to break a 12-12 tie and score what held up as the game-winning goal. Wiech's goal, his second of the game, was the only goal scored by either team in the game's final 10 minutes. The loss drops No. 16 Colorado Mesa to 3-3 on the season. No. 17 Florida Southern improves to 6-2 with the victory.

Colorado Mesa nearly came from behind in this one, as the Mavericks trailed 10-6 at halftime but outscored Florida Southern 3-1 in the third quarter and 3-1 in the fourth quarter prior to Wiech's goal. JJ Brummett scored four goals for CMU in the loss while Dillon Pless scored his first career hat trick with a three-goal performance.

The Mavericks outshot Florida Southern 48-37, but were stymied by Mocs goalie Michael Simone, who made 19 saves in the winning effort. Colorado Mesa split the goalie duties between Mac Bayless (10 goals allowed, three saves in the first half) and Luke Parrish (three goals allowed, seven saves in the second half).

CMU also won the face-off battle, 19-10, and had six more ground balls than the Mocs, 44-38. Levi McCoy, Hunter Holcomb, Logan Smith, Trey Corkin III and Shawn Ferguson all scored one goal in the loss for the Mavericks.

Colorado Mesa will compete its three-game road swing in Florida with a game against Flagler on Thursday. Flagler, which is receiving votes in the USILA poll, will face the Mavs at 5 p.m. Thursday.