COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Swarthmore College men's lacrosse team opened Centennial Conference with a loss to Ursinus College on Saturday afternoon. The Bears used two late goals to comeback against the Garnet by a 8-7 score.

Swarthmore (2-5, 0-1 CC) outshot the Bears 20-12 in the second half and maintained the lead from 6:19 in the third until just over two minutes to play in the game before Ursinus (5-2, 1-0 CC) staked it's final claim of the game. The Bears rattled of two goals in 63 seconds to grab the conference victory.

Seniors Brendan Conway and Jonathan Molloy along with junior Andrew Preiser all finished with three points in the game. Conway and Preiser each scored twice with one assist, while Molloy racked up all three points in the third period off one goal and two assists. Senior keeper Jonathan Cohen made eight stops in the effort.

The Bears were led by a hat trick from Steve Smryl, while Tucker Noel and Steve Mussoline put away two goals in the victory. Goalkeeper Brian Neff made nine saves - four coming in the game-deciding fourth period. Shawn Caven won 8-of-11 faceoffs taken for the Bears.

Offense opened up slow for both teams as the first shot wasn't taken until four minutes into play and then Swarthmore finally opened the scoring at 9:03 as Dane Fichter found the back of the cage. The Bears answered with two goals from Steve Mussoline spread over a four-minute stretch to take a 2-1 lead with 3:56 to play in the first. Conway rattled off his first goal of the game at 2:50 to knot the score.

Quick goals from each side to start the second keep it a tied game. Steve Smryl gave the Bears the lead again at 13:11 with the assist going to Jake Weber. After winning the proceeding faceoff due to a Bears' violation, Swarthmore took a timeout to regroup. When play resumed, junior Andrew Preiser recorded his first of two goals.

The Bears added two goals in the final 2:18 of the half to lead 5-3 at the intermission. Swarthmore had an offensive break in the final seconds, but Molloy's shot went off the post to keep the goal differential at two.

The Garnet opened the third quarter on fire – with goals from Preiser and Molloy to tie the game at 5-all with 11:39 to play. Swarthmore dominated the ball in the third - winning 3-of-4 faceoffs, a 14-9 groundball advantage as well as outshooting the Bears 9-5 and outscoring 4-0 to take a 7-5 lead into the final 15 minutes.

Senior defender Geli Carabases recorded five ground balls and tied a career-best mark of five caused turnovers. Junior Darrel Hunter and sophomore Mike Selverian each scooped up four ground balls for the Garnet.

Swarthmore hosts Muhlenberg College on Wednesday, March 26 to continue conference action.