SALT LAKE CITY, Utah— The Colorado Mesa University men's lacrosse team saw a 7-4 lead through three quarters evaporate as the Mavericks gave up six fourth-quarter goals without scoring any of their own as they dropped their regular season finale by a 10-7 scoreline to the Concordia University Irvine Golden Eagles on Saturday morning here at Westminster University's Dumke Field.
 
The Mavericks' loss, combined with Westminster's 20-7 win over Northwest Nazarene University later in the day, also cost the Mavs a share of the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference's regular season championship.
 
CMU, which is now 10-4 overall, finished with an 8-2 RMAC record to take second place in the final standings.  CUI improved to 9-6 overall and 7-3 in the RMAC and finished third.
 
Saturday's win was the Golden Eagles' first in the three-year rivalry, which CMU still leads 7-1.
 
The two teams will play again here next Thursday night at 7 p.m. second semifinal of the RMAC Tournament after Westminster will face Northwest Nazarene in another re-match at 4 p.m.
 
The Mavs have won the RMAC Tournament title game over CUI in the previous two seasons.
 
In Saturday's win, CUI goalkeeper Brody Woods made five of his 13 saves in the fourth quarter as the Golden Eagles scored four goals in a span of less than four minutes to take a 8-7 lead before adding two late goals to complete the win.
 
Freshman Ari Villano scored two goals and two assists to lead the Maverick effort.  Connor Jensen and Eli Bibler both added goals and assists as well.
 
The final statistics were fairly even as the Mavs finished with a 35-33 advantage in shots while recording 27 ground balls, four more than the Golden Eagles.  The Mavs were also able to win 11 of 21 faceoffs against one of the nation's top possession-gaining units.
 
However, the Mavs committed 15 turnovers and were unable to beat Woods in the final frame.
 
Seven goals were scored in the opening quarter as the Mavericks took a 4-2 lead with a 4-goal run that featured goals from Nike Moore, Erich Petersen, Villano and Jensen. 
 
The Golden Eagles then tied the game at four with the only goal of the second quarter at the 8:56 mark.
 
The Mavs then scored all three goals of the third quarter thanks to Bibler, Dillon Pless and Villano.
 
However, CUI scored three goals in the first four minutes of the fourth quarter to tie the game before Matt Carresi scored the go-ahead and eventual game winner at the 9:13 mark.
 
The Mavs won five of the seven faceoffs in the fourth quarter as Dillan Thomas went 6-for-8 with two ground balls throughout the game  Alex Martinez also went 5-for-8 at the dot.
 
Jack Lepore scored four goals to lead the Golden Eagle attack while Jeremy Barnes added two goals and an assist.