Wingate, N.C.----Lenoir-Rhyne University freshman midfielder Eric Dickinson (Charlotte, N.C.) tallied a game-high five goals and one assist to lead the 14th-ranked Bears to a 10-9 victory over the Wingate University Bulldogs in South Atlantic Conference men's lacrosse action from Graham Gill Field at the Irwin Belk Track Complex Saturday afternoon. The Bulldogs outscored LRU 6-3 in the second half during the comeback attempt, but fell one goal short in the final seconds.
 
Wingate is now 4-2 overall and 1-1 in the SAC. Lenoir-Rhyne extends its current win streak to five games, improving to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in league play. The WU Bulldogs return to action next Saturday, March 18 for their first SAC road contest of the season versus Lincoln Memorial at 1 p.m. LRU travels to Young Harris this Tuesday for a 4 p.m. non-conference encounter.
 
WU junior attack Jeremy Sullivan (Crofton, Md.) led the Bulldog scoring efforts with three goals. Six other Wingate student-athletes posted one goal in the contest. For Lenoir-Rhyne, senior attack Mike Hanlon (Haymarket, Va.) and junior midfielder Ben Corrigan (Alpharetta, Ga.) supported Dickinson's strong performance with two goals each. Sophomore attack Ryan Bell (Havre de Grace, Md.) finished with one tally.
 
Bulldog sophomore midfielder Daniel Godwin (Greensboro, N.C.) netted the opening goal to give Wingate an early 1-0 lead with 13:11 left in the first quarter. LRU answered with a tally from Dickinson to knot the score at 1-1 one minute later. LRU then scored the go-ahead tally with 30 seconds remaining in the stanza to grab the 2-1 advantage and never looked back.
 
The visitors led 3-1 until a goal from WU sophomore midfielder Sean Moran (Lawrence, N.Y.) trimmed the deficit down to 3-2 with 6:01 in the third quarter. Lenoir-Rhyne answered with a crucial 4-0 run to extend the advantage out 7-2 with 1:13 remaining in the second frame. WU sophomore midfielder Conor Gronbach (Cary, N.C.) found the back of the net with five seconds left in the first half to make it 7-3 game at the halftime intermission.
 
Wingate began the half with back-to-back tallies from senior attack Austin Murphy (Orillia, Ontario) and Sullivan to cut the deficit down to 7-5 with 8:52 remaining in the third quarter. A score from Hanlon made it 8-5 with 7:19 to go in the stanza with the score remaining the same entering the final quarter.
 
Trailing by a score of 9-5, the Bulldogs attempted a furious comeback with three straight goals from redshirt senior attack Ryan Vogrig (Vancouver, B.C.), senior midfielder Brennan Asplen (St. Augustine, Fla.) and Sullivan to trim the margin down to 9-8 with 10:04 to go in the fourth quarter. Dickinson answered with an insurance tally to make it a 10-8 LRU lead at the 9:18 mark. Sullivan netted his third goal of the afternoon with 1:57 remaining in regulation to cut the lead down to 10-9, but the Bear defense held strong for the one-goal victory.
 
Wingate junior goalkeeper Will Sheridan (Woodstock, Ga.) posted a career-high 20 saves and took the loss, falling to 4-2 on the season. He went the distance Saturday. Lenoir-Rhyne junior goalie Ryan Crompton (Frederick, Md.) tallied eight total stops and got the win. He also played the full 60 minutes.
 
LRU outshot Wingate 44-21, while maintaining the convincing 52-39 edge in ground balls. Both teams were even at 15-15 in turnovers and Lenoir-Rhyne led 13-8 in face-offs. The Bulldogs held the 8-7 advantage in caused turnovers.
 
(Wingate University athletic media relations/sports network student assistant Jackson Kaplan contributed this article. A sophomore from Raleigh, Kaplan is a Communication Studies major at Wingate.)