MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – The No. 6 Wesleyan men's lacrosse team suffered a heartbreaking defeat to No. 15 Middlebury on Saturday afternoon as the Panthers scored twice in the final 15 seconds to pull off a thrilling 10-9 win from Youngman Field at Alumni Stadium. Wesleyan (5-2, 3-1 NESCAC) sees their four-game unbeaten run come to a halt while the Panthers (5-4, 3-2 NESCAC) are winners of three straight.
 
Wesleyan tallied the first goal 2:44 into play as Ben Burns '26 found the net on a behind-the-back shot to push the visitors ahead 1-0. The Cardinals continued to push the envelope, as Will Miller '26 and James Bailey '26 scored less than a minute apart to extend the lead to 3-0 at the 7:12 mark.
 
Logan White ignited the Middlebury attack, ripping off a hat trick of goals over 3:11 to know the score at 3-3 heading into the second quarter.
 
Middlebury continued its scoring run, as Patrick Jamin found Cooper DeMallie in a sea of Cardinal defenders, firing a shot just under the crossbar. Wesleyan knotted the contest at 4-4 about three minutes later on a ripper from Gavin Lechner '27 that landed inside the left post.
 
Neither team could find the back of the net over the final 10:43 of the first half as the two sides were level at halftime.
 
The third quarter saw several lead changes as Burns and Lechner both scored again, to deadlock the contest at 6-6 heading into the fourth.
 
The back-and-forth trend continued with Burns netting his third of the day on a shot from 20 yards out, while Russell Thorndike answered to level the score at 7-7 with 8:25 remaining.
 
Wesleyan appeared to have grabbed control late in the fourth, scoring two of the next three goals to take a 9-8 advantage with 1:24 left. Miller scored with 7:21 left and Burns netted his fourth of the day with just 1:24 remaining.
 
The Cardinals won the ensuing faceoff and chaos ensued as three turnovers in a span of just 20 seconds saw Middlebury take the ball back with 34 seconds left. After calling timeout, Thorndike found the equalizer with a rip from 20 yards out that tucked inside the top right corner.
 
Wesleyan again won the faceoff, looking for the final shot, but William Munroe caused a key turnover at midfield to give position back to the home squad. Racing up the sideline, Munroe flipped the ball to a crashing Billy Curtis, who fired a bouncer the sailed over the goal line to give Middlebury a thrilling 10-9 triumph.

Burns led the offense with four goals, giving him 4+ goals in 3-of-7 games this season and pushing his career point total up to 99. Miller had two goals and one assist while Lechner had two goals, Bailey registered one goal and one assist, and Jack Raba '23, G'25 had two assists.
 
Tyler Campbell '25 went 10-for-20 on faceoffs with five ground balls. Jared Cohen '25 and Charlie Hoban '25 each had three ground balls and one caused turnover. Conor Selfridge '26 made 11 saves in goal to go along with three ground balls.
 
Wesleyan looks to rebound on Wednesday with a trip to Amherst for a 6 PM start. A win would clinch the Cardinals a second straight Little Three Championship as Wesleyan defeated Williams 22-11 back on March 15.