It was a lacrosse game for the ages, but don’t try telling that to the Bearcats.

With seconds remaining in double overtime, UMBC star Drew Westervelt caught a pass from a fast break, held the ball momentarily and flipped a shot past Binghamton goalie Jeff Walker. The time on the scoreboard read .01 seconds.

Westervelt’s sudden-death goal put host No. 15 UMBC (7-4, 2-1 AE) up 11-10, helping the Retrievers withstand a late charge from Binghamton (3-7, 2-1 AE) in front of 1,031 fans on Saturday night at UMBC stadium.

Down six goals at the start of the fourth period, the Bearcats looked ready to fold. But for the first few minutes of the period, freshman midfielder Steve Carlson took matters into his own hands. Carlson scored four straight unassisted goals to begin the period, putting BU down two.

‘Carlson really played huge,’ said BU head coach Ed Stephenson. ‘It was quite a performance by him. He took them right on, taking real good looks with lots of velocity.’

Binghamton leading scorer Jake Boyce cut the deficit to one with eight minutes left. UMBC starting goalkeeper Jeremy Blevins was subsequently pulled from the game in favor of backup David Coker.

UMBC retained possession of the ball in the waning seconds of regulation. The BU defense forced a desperately-needed turnover with about 20 seconds left and cleared the ball to sophomore attack Chris Mulheron, who had just subbed in from the sideline. Mulheron found freshman Andy Cook near the crease and Cook scored the equalizer with one second remaining.

‘I came out of the box with about 10 seconds left,’ said Mulheron. ‘[Defenseman Michael Cove] threw me the ball out of the box, and I dodged one defender and evaded a couple of others. Andy’s man came to cover me and I passed it to him. I didn’t even see the goal being scored.’

‘That was a great look by Chris,’ Stephenson acknowledged.

The Bearcats retained possession for most of the first overtime period. They were able to create an open shot for Carlson that would have ended the game.

‘He scores that one nine out of 10 times,’ Stephenson said.

Carlson finished with five goals on 12 shots.

Sophomore J.P. Wioncek dominated the faceoff circle, winning 16 of 25 draws including six of seven in the fourth period.

Saturday’s loss was one of BU’s many near upsets of strong teams this season. Binghamton previously came close at No. 20 Drexel, No. 3 Virginia and Syracuse.

‘I don’t know if you can call it a moral victory or anything,’ Mulheron said. ‘We went down there to win and we didn’t do that. But we can build off that fourth quarter comeback. We want to take that attitude to Stony Brook on Saturday.’

With wins at Stony Brook and No. 2 Albany, Binghamton can still win the America East regular season title. The Bearcats can also miss the AE playoffs.

‘Our objective is to win the conference, and we still have that opportunity,’ Stephenson said. ‘We still have that objective in our sights.’