NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – The Saint Anselm College men's lacrosse team overcame a four-goal deficit in the fourth quarter but Brendan Donnelly scored with 36 seconds remaining to give third-ranked Merrimack a 13-12 victory over the Hawks in their regular-season finale on Saturday afternoon at Martone-Mejail Field.

Box Score

Merrimack (13-1, 10-1 NE-10) held a 12-8 lead 25 seconds into the final quarter but Saint Anselm (8-5, 6-5 NE-10) erased the deficit by scoring four-straight goals, tying the score on a Drew Bourdeau goal with 1:39 to go. However, Merrimack won the ensuing faceoff to set up Donnelly's game-winner.

Following Donnelly's goal, Jake Stokes won the faceoff to give the Hawks a shot to tie the score. Saint Anselm had two shots in the final five seconds but Merrimack's Sam Ventresca made a save on a shot by Ben Warren and Xavier Quinn's shot went wide.

The Hawks had already secured a spot in the Northeast-10 Championship and the team will travel to third-seeded Adelphi as the sixth seed in the first round. The Panthers edged the Hawks 13-12 in overtime in the regular-season meeting between the two teams on April 6 in Garden City, N.Y.

James Olsen paced the Saint Anselm attack with four goals, Mark Vitello added three for his third-straight game with at least a hat trick and Warren tallied two goals and two assists. Bourdeau, Todd Billetter and Ryan Hesseltine each found the back of the net as well.

Donnelly scored a team-best three goals for Merrimack, while Ryan Poirier registered a game-high seven points on two goals and five assists. Seamus Ford pitched in two goals and two assists, Max Allen had a goal and two helpers and Michael O'Connell scored twice.

Merrimack scored the game's first four goals and led 6-2 after the first quarter behind two goals each from Ford and Donnelly. Warren scored one and set up an extra-man goal by Olsen to get the Hawks within 4-2 only for the Warriors to score the final two goals of the opening period.

Warren opened the scoring in the second to cut the Merrimack lead to 6-3 but the Warriors scored three-straight goals to take a 9-3 advantage. Saint Anselm closed the half on a 3-0 run with two goals coming from Vitello to make it a three-goal game at the break.

Both teams scored twice in the third with Merrimack scoring the first two and Saint Anselm responding with goals from Hesseltine and Olsen, leaving the Warriors up 11-8 after three. Goals from Vitello, Olsen, Billetter and Bourdeau helped the Hawks overcome a 12-8 deficit in the fourth prior to Donnelly's late winner.

Derriack LaBranche grabbed a career-high nine groundballs for the Hawks and Ryan Sullivan forced a team-high two turnovers. Senior James O'Neill made a season-high 16 saves in 48:29 in net but took the loss in his longest appearance of the season.

Ventresca moved to 12-1 on the season by stopping seven shots for Merrimack. Blake Bourdeau picked up eight ground balls for the Warriors, while Andrew Walsh had six.

Merrimack held a 50-31 advantage in shots in the game, although shots were even at 19-19 in the second half. The Warriors won 21-of-28 faceoffs on the afternoon and picked up 43 groundballs to 34 for the Hawks.