Box Score BEVERLY, Mass.--Second-seeded Western New England's furious rally in the later stages of the game at top seed Endicott came up just short on Saturday, snapping the Golden Bears three-year run of Commonwealth Coast Conference championship titles. Kyle Weber led all scorers with four goals, including what proved to be the game-winner with 2 minutes and 9 seconds remaining, to lead the nationally No. 9-ranked Gulls to a 13-12 win over Western New England at Endicott Stadium.

Endicott (15-3) moves on to compete in the NCAA postseason for the ninth time which begins on Wednesday, May 6, with first-round action. The tournament bracket will be revealed on Sunday night at 9 p.m. with the online NCAA Selection Show. The Golden Bears (12-6), who were ranked 14th in the last published NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse North Region Rankings, await their playoff fate possibly to the NCAAs or Eastern College Athletic Conference New England Championship Tournament.

Junior Patrick Dillon paced the WNE offense with three goals while senior Dan McKenna, and sophomores Justin Bard, Keegan Dudeck matched Dillon with three points on a two goals and an assist each.

Will Jennings added a hat trick for Endicott, and Joshua Tordik notched a goal and three assists. Colin Bannon and Nick Pinciaro (4 ground balls) both chipped in a goal and two helpers apiece.

Trailing 13-9 with 2 minutes left, the Golden Bears fought back within a goal after the trio of Bota-Dudeck-Dillon found the back of the cage within a span of 29 seconds. Bota scored at 39 seconds, Dudeck 12 seconds later, and Dillon with 10 ticks on the clock to give WNE a glimmer of hope. On the ensuing face-off, however, Endicott sophomore Tommy Hughes won the most important of his 13 face-off wins back to senior Ian Knechtle for his 11th ground ball, and the Blue and Green were able to run out the clock to secure their first conference title since 2011.

Junior face-off specialist David Cedrone helped fuel WNE's comeback attempt, as he won 16-of-29 face-offs and grabbed 10 ground balls to help his team hold a 42-36 overall advantage in ground balls.

Endicott goalie Cameron Bell made 10 of his 17 saves in the first half to keep the WNE offense from finding the back of the net while the Gulls offense clicked in the opening two quarters by taking a 7-2 halftime lead. Seven different goal scorers found the cage for the Gulls while Tordik registered two of his three assists in the first half.

Weber had three tallies in the second half to help Endicott ward off WNE's furious comeback. After Tordik netted his fourth and final point of the game on an unassisted goal shaking off a Golden Bear defender and beating the goalie high to make it 11-5, WNE began to creep back into contention with three straight goals to end the third quarter. Dillon scored two of those goals and Bard deposited his CCC-second-leading 54th as the Golden Bears went into the fourth quarter trailing by just three, 11-8.

Endicott opened up the fourth with Jennings' third goal of the game, off an assist from Mitchell Tapley to go up 12-8 at the 12:00 mark. The two teams went scoreless for nearly eight minutes until after a cross-check penalty on Bell, WNE took advantage of their man-up chance as sophomore attacker Frank Medlicott scored to make it a 12-9 game.

Senior goalie Brandon Body made eight saves in the WNE cage, plus he had four ground balls.

Western New England and Endicott have now played each other six times in the CCC Championship with the Golden Bears holding a 4-2 edge. The Gulls have won the CCC title eight times, but the Golden Bears own five crowns since they entered the conference in time for the 2008 season.

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(Editor's note: Endicott Athletics contributed to this game recap.)