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ALFRED, NY – The Alfred University men's lacrosse team was back at Yunevich Stadium for a cold and snowy afternoon matchup with Ohio Northern University. The Saxons fell just short of a spectacular come back and fell to the Polar Bears by a score of 9-8.
 
ONU came out firing and scored the game's first five goals, which included ending the first quarter up- 4-0 over the Saxons.
 
After the Polar Bears scored first in the second period, AU finally broke through on an unassisted goal from Joe Fornataro (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena).
 
Just 30 seconds later, the Saxons made the deficit even smaller with a goal from Noah Soriano (Valley Cottage, NY/Nyack), assisted by Cale Donegan (Corning, NY/Corning-Painted Post).
 
Fornataro notched his second goal of the game not even a minute later to make it a two goal game.
 
In the closing minutes of the second quarter, Patrick Brewer (Bath, NY/Bath-Haverling) netted a shot to give AU its fourth goal of the quarter and make it 5-4 heading into halftime.
 
The teams went scoreless for much of the third quarter until Donegan scored the lone goal of the period at the 4:38 mark to even the game at five all.
 
The score stayed that way going into the final quarter.
 
Early in the fourth quarter, ONU regained the lead with a goal at the 13:42 mark. Fornataro evened the game once again and scored his third goal of the contest with 8:11 to play.
 
The Polar Bears then took it down to the opposite end and took a 7-6 lead.
 
That lead did not last long as Brewer scored just a minute and a half later to tie the game at 7.
 
With 5:24 to play, Soriano converted his second goal to give Alfred its first and only lead of the game at 8-7.
 
ONU netted a goal with 2:21 to play to tie it at eight. Both goalkeepers made some tremendous saves down the stretch to keep the game knotted and send it into overtime.
 
The Extra period was short lived as the Polar Bears marched down with just 13 seconds off the clock and scored the game winning goal to send the Saxons to their first loss of the season.
 
Fornataro ended with a hat trick and on eight shots to lead AU. Soriano scored twice and picked up three ground balls. Brewer scored two goals and assisted on another. Donegan scored one goal and had one assist while Jack Chapman (Elmira, NY/Notre Dame) recorded one assist. Anthony Ricottilli (Cortland, NY/Cortland) also assisted on one goal. Gage Ponsetti (Penn Yan, NY/Penn Yan) played all 60 minutes in the net and ended with 16 saves.
 
The Saxons are back at home on Wednesday against SUNY Geneseo. That one is set to begin at 3PM.