WINGATE, N.C. – After battling back from a four-goal deficit, the No. 14 Newberry College men's lacrosse team fell just shy of beating the No. 8 Wingate Bulldogs on the road Saturday afternoon.

Newberry (5-2, 1-1 South Atlantic Conference) was led by two-goal efforts from James Osorio (Ronkonkoma, N.Y.), Baker Westmoreland (Charlotte, N.C.), Scott Reed (Ontario, Canada), Briley Maxwell (Edmonton, Alberta, Canada) and Curtis Bukta (Ontario, Canada). Scoring one goal apiece on the afternoon were Brock Strong (Clarington, Ontario, Canada), Zach Thompson (Ottawa, Ontario Canada), Miles Jones (Jupiter, FLA.) and Mac Ryan (Lake Villa, Ill).

Wingate (5-1, 3-0 SAC) started the game off in a flash, registering the first goal of the day just eight seconds into the contest. Osorio scored his first of the game about five minutes later off a pass from Adrian Channell (Ontario, Canada) to tie the score at one.

The Bulldogs went back up a score some two minutes later, which was answered by Westmoreland with 6:10 left in the first to knot the game back up at two. Three unanswered goals by Wingate gave them a 5-2 advantage, but Maxwell's first goal of the day with 29 seconds remaining in the opening quarter trimmed the lead to 5-3 heading into the second.

Two Wingate goals to open the second quarter pushed its lead to 7-3. Osorio then found the back of the net off a feed from Channell – his second assist of the afternoon – to bring the deficit back to three with 10 minutes to play in the first half. The Bulldogs scored two of the next three goals to bring their lead back to four, 9-5, with less than five minutes to play in the second.

That's when the Wolves went on a run to get back in the game.

Bukta's first score and Jones' lone goal, with a mere 15 seconds remaining in the half, pulled Newberry within 9-7 at halftime. Two more goals to open the third quarter – both on the man-up advantage thanks to a three-minute unnecessary roughness penalty – evened the game back up at nine apiece with 12:22 to play in the quarter. Scoring those goals were Thompson and Westmoreland; Thompson also assisted on the Westmoreland goal – one of his team-best three assists for the game.

Wingate, though, answered the Wolves' 4-0 run with a 4-0 spurt of its own to take a 13-9 edge with five minutes to play in quarter three. Another man-up opportunity then presented itself for Newberry, and Scott Reed took advantage with his first goal of the game to trim the Bulldog lead to 13-10 entering the last quarter.

Yet another man-up goal – the fourth of the day – brought the Wolves within two in the early portion of the fourth thanks to Bukta. Just 30 seconds after, Mac Ryan scored an unassisted goal to make it a one-goal, 13-12 game with 10:52 to play in the game.

The teams traded the next four goals, and Wingate scored its 16th goal of the afternoon to close the scoring at 16-14 as the Wolves were unable to get a shot home over the final 1:51.

For the game, Newberry held the advantage in ground balls 44-42. Reed and Connor Bates (Boiling Springs, S.C.) tied for the team lead with nine ground balls each. The four man-up goals gives the Wolves 22 for the season and raises their conversion rate to 73.3%. That mark is not only the best in the conference, it is the best in all of Division II.

Newberry returns to Setzler Field for its next game on Wednesday. Faceoff is set for 7 p.m. against Lenoir-Rhyne.