Waltham, Mass. - A five-goal lead was enough for Adelphi men's lacrosse to hold off fourth-seeded Bentley University on Wednesday, in the first round of the 2023 NCAA Division II Men's Lacrosse tournament, ultimately coming out ahead 9-8. 

The Falcons, who made their first trip to the big dance after putting together a historic conference tournament run, met the fifth-seeded Panthers for the third time in 19 days. The higher seed prevailed in both the regular season and NE10 playoffs, but came out flat on their home field to suffer a season-ending defeat. 

Adelphi, led by Joseph Duchnowski's hat trick, scored the first two goals of the contest before the home team managed to get on the board, cutting the deficit to one. The Panther defense was responsible for holding Bentley scoreless over nearly the next two periods, as they continued to tack on goals.

Eamon Hall found Duchnowski to cap the hat trick at 9:08 in the third while Dylan Barry shoveled a rebounded shot past Jack Tinsely to make it a 7-1 game with 6:31 left in the third. 

Bentley's Nathan Alviti was responsible for the last goal in the third and opened the scoring in the fourth, both on man-up possessions. Jack Hipchen and Barry were both credited with tallies in the fourth as the lone Adelphi tallies, as the Falcons put together a comeback that brought the stadium to their feet. The hosts won four straight faceoffs that led to four unanswered goals with 1:25 remaining in regulation. 

Another Falcon win at the X with the scoreboard flashing 9-8 was trouble for Adelphi until Nick Paris picked the stick of leading scorer Luke Jaber to give the ball to the Cats with enough time on the clock to run it down without having to worry about a clock violation. Dylan Renner collected 13 saves in the win, which included six in the opening quarter of action. 

This is the first time the Panthers have picked up an NCAA tournament win since the 2017 season when they defeated Pace University by one goal.

They will now face the Dolphins of Le Moyne on Sunday, May 14 as they return to Syracuse for a 1:00 p.m. contest. The 'Phins earned a bye by way of being the no. 1 seed in the north and this will be the second time this season the two teams meet and the last time as Division II opponents as Le Moyne announced their reclassification on Wednesday.