UMBC

West Hartford, Conn.—The UMBC men’s lacrosse team saw its six-game winning streak snapped as host Hartford edged the Retrievers, 10-8.

UMBC (9-3, 3-1 America East) can still gain the top seed in the America East Tournament with a victory over Vermont next Saturday at UMBC Stadium.

The Retrievers outshot the Hawks, 54-24, but freshman netminder Scott Bement made 19 saves for Hartford.

After Hartford scored the game’ first two goals, UMBC would take its lone lead of the game as junior attackman Matt Latham (Eldersburg, Md./Liberty) followed a Ryan Smith (Fallston, Md./Fallston/CCBC-Essex) score with back-to-back goals, giving the Retrievers a 3-2 lead two minutes into the second quarter. But Hartford closed the quarter on a 3-0 run and lead, 5-3, at intermission.

UMBC cut the deficit to 5-4 as junior midfielder Kyle Wimer (Lancaster, Pa.) scored the Retrievers’ lone man-up goal of the game (1/6) at the 2:31 mark of the third quarter, but the Hawks capitalized on a pair of UMBC turnovers and went on another 3-0 surge to take an 8-4 advantage at the 7:35 mark of the stanza.

Hartford led, 9-6, after 45 minutes, but UMBC senior midfielder Alex Hopmann (Annapolis, Md./Annapolis) scored just 12 seconds into the fourth quarter to shave the deficit to 9-7. But Hartford’s Tim Fallon won the ensuing draw and scored seven seconds later to restore the three-goal edge.

Senior midfielder Peet Poillon (Cranberry Township, Pa./Seneca Valley/Ohio State) scored with 3:02 left to bring UMBC to within 10-8. But Bement stopped a Poillon attempt with 2:08 remaining, the Retrievers committed a turnover with 90 seconds to play and Chris Jones’ (Martinsville, N.J.) rang the post with 17 seconds left to end the comeback attempt.

Latham led UMBC with three goals, while Poillon added a pair. Aiden Genik and Michael Cudmore led a balance Hawk attack with two goals each.

The setback also snapped UMBC’s America East regular season winning streak at 12 and its 2009 perfect road record (4-1).