BETHLEHEM, Pa. — The comeback effort from the Catholic University men's lacrosse team fell just short as the Cardinal succumbed to Moravian in overtime on Saturday afternoon.

Very little separated the two teams as the squads were knotted up at halftime and neither team led by more than three goals.

Nolan Scott and Matt Shandley's first-quarter tallies were sandwiched by two Moravian goals to take the teams to the first break at 2-2. It was the same story in quarter number two. Moravian scored first on the man-up before Steven Dezelic fired home from Victor Rosado's second assist of the day. Aaron Judge then completed his hat trick with 91 seconds remaining in the quarter, but Catholic beat the halftime buzzer to draw level. Mike Mulligan scored with three seconds remaining to ensure the teams entered halftime all square.

Moravian edged the third quarter 4-2 before an early fourth-quarter tally put Moravian up 9-6. After Rosado and Dan Kelly traded goals, Catholic found itself in a three-goal hole with 11:45 remaining. Rosado then rattled off two more to pull his team within one with six-and-a-half minutes left on the clock.

Catholic continued to push for the equalizer as time ticked away. It was freshman Erik Aulbach that eventually came up with the goods, scoring with just 76 seconds remaining to tie the game and force overtime. 

The Cardinals then won the ensuing face-off and carved out a shot for Rosado with just five seconds remaining but Liam Kelly was equal to the task in the Moravian goal. Moravian won the opening face-off of overtime and, after using a timeout, scored to win the game 39 seconds into the extra stanza.

Catholic won the ground ball battle (36-25) and were solid in the clear, going 20-for-22 while holding the Greyhounds to 20-of-25. Moravian, however, found an edge in odd-player situations, going 2-of-2 on extra-man opportunities and holding Catholic scoreless in three attempts.

Ryan Macksoud got the better of Gannon Mesko at the face-off X to the tune of a 14-for-23 day, but Mesko won what proved to be the most important draw at the beginning of overtime. Tyler Merchant continued his strong freshman campaign with 13 saves on the day while Mason Russo caused two turnovers and scooped up six ground balls.

Now at 7-7 overall and 3-3 in Landmark Conference play, the Cardinals will prepare for a tough task on Wednesday night. Catholic welcomes conference-leading Elizabethtown to Carlini Field for a pivotal match-up, with opening face-off set for 6 p.m.