ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Less than 30 seconds remained in Saturday afternoon's men's lacrosse game between Roberts Wesleyan University and  East Coast Conference rival Mercy.
The Redhawks trailed the Mavericks 12-11, but had the ball and a man-up opportunity. Roberts got a clean look at the cage, but the shot hit the post and Mercy, which is ranked in the Top 10 in two national polls, walked away with the narrow victory.  
"I am so proud of them," Roberts head coach Rocky Delfino said. "I hope that now they can see for themselves how good they are. Hopefully we can build off this like we usually do."
The Redhawks (6-5, 0-1 ECC) trailed 11-6 with 6:25 remaining in the third quarter before closing the stanza with a 3-0 run. When Matt Walsh scored 32 seconds into the fourth, the Redhawks were within a goal and the intensity level of the game elevated several notches.
"They know that they can do that, that's in their DNA," Delfino said.
Brody Caskenette scored with 13:06 left to restore Mercy's two goal lead, but Gunner MacMillan scored with 4:25 remaining to make it 12-11, and the Redhawks had the potential tying goal waved off seconds later on a crease violation, setting the stage for the frantic final minutes.
"That's lacrosse, that's the game," Delfino said. "They say football is a game of inches, but lacrosse is no different."
Senior Jordon Deats led Roberts with three goals, including two straight tallies to start the third-quarter comeback.
"It just shows that these guys have a lot of heart," Deats said. "You can see it every day in practice and it translates out here on the field. We are a young group, but we have guys who want to compete and want to win."
MacMillan finished with two goals and an assist and Jacob Zimmerman added two goals for the Redhawks. Walsh had a goal and an assist while Dan Doviak, Sam Keens and Preston Steve each scored once.
Sophomore Garrett Kayser was strong in goal with 15 saves, including several point-blank stops throughout the game.
"Garrett played great," Delfino said. "He is playing with a lot of confidence right now."
While the Redhawks don's believe in moral victories, they did take several positives away from Saturday's game.
"Mercy is one of the top teams in the country and we just wanted to play with them each possession and take it one quarter at a time and we were able to do that," Deats said. "At the end there we were man-up with 28 seconds left and we got a good shot, it just hit off the post. These are the type of games that we want to be in going forward."
The Redhawks return to action at 7 p.m. on March 29 for an ECC game at D'Youville.