ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla.— The Colorado Mesa University men's lacrosse team ran out of time in a comeback attempt as they dropped a 10-9 decision to the Flagler College Saints on Tuesday afternoon in a rematch of last year's Peach Belt Conference Tournament Championship game that the Mavs had won.
 
The Mavericks fell to 4-2 this season while the Saints improved to 6-4. 
 
Tuesday's game was the Mavs' final non-conference game of the season.
 
The Saints held a small lead through much of the first half and went into the halftime intermission with a 5-4 cushion.
 
The hosts then scored all five third quarter goals to open a 9-4 lead before the Mavericks answered the back with five goals of their own in the fourth quarter, the last of which came with 14 seconds left.
 
However, the Saints won the ensuing faceoff and ran out the clock.
 
The Mavericks finished the afternoon with a 43-30 advantage in total shots and a 27-21 edge in shots on goal but were unable to regularly beat Saint net-minder Jonah Smith, who finished with 18 saves to lead his team to victory.
 
Freshman Ari Villano and Erich Petersen both scored two goals for the Mavs.  Both of Petersen's markers were in the fourth quarter while Villano's second was the Mavs' final minute goal.
 
Jack Cooper, Dillon Pless, Nik Moore and Connor Jensen were also able to score for the Mavs.
 
CMU redshirt freshman Alex Martinez claimed all 11 of the Mavs' faceoff wins while true freshman Boaz Brown got the start in net, finishing with a season-high 11 saves.
 
The Pless brothers— Dillon and Ryan both finished with three ground balls.
 
Trace McDonald scored three goals on eight shots to lead the Saints.
 
The Mavs, who went 1-2 on their 4-day trip through Florida, will now fly back home to resume Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference play with weekend home games against Dominican University of California and Concordia University Irvine.
 
The Mavs, who are 1-0 in RMAC action this year, will take on the Dominican Penguins (0-5, 0-2 RMAC) at 7 p.m. on Friday and the CUI Golden Eagles, currently 3-4 (1-1 RMAC) at 1 p.m. on Sunday.