M. LACROSSE | The men’s lacrosse team edged out No. 12 UMass, 13–12, with just 34 seconds left on the clock Friday night.

Attacker Matt Gibson ’12 scored the game-winning goal to shatter a 12–12 tie right before time expired — propelling the Bulldogs (2–0, 0–0 Ivy) to their victory against UMass. The win at Reese Stadium avenged the Minutemen’s 18–6 clobbering of the Elis in Amherst, Mass., last year and fueled the Elis’ positive momentum for their upcoming stretch of three away games.

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“It feels great,” Gibson said of the win. “We’ve worked so hard in the off-season and preseason. They lit us up last year, and it feels great to get revenge.”

Gibson tallied five goals and one assist in the game. Attacker Brian Douglass ’11 and midfielder Gregory Mahony ’12 also notched a pair of goals each.

The Minutemen (2–1, 0–0 CAA) struck first on Friday, getting the ball past goalie Johnathan Falcone ’11 only two minutes into the first quarter. UMass quickly made the lead 2–0 with another goal 31 seconds later. Play bounced back and forth for the remainder of the first 15 minutes, but UMass had opened up a sizeable 7–4 lead by the 10th minute of the second quarter.

Yet the Minutemen were unable to quell Yale’s offensive efforts, and the Elis’ resolute attackers bridged the three-point gap in a 1:42 stretch near the end of the second quarter. Midfielder Colin Still ’12 put the Blue ahead for the first time with 30 seconds left in the first half, but UMass’s leading scorer Bobby Hayes equalized nine seconds before halftime.

Yale upped its level of play after the halftime restart — scoring two goals in the third period to take a 10–8 lead and preventing the visitors from capitalizing once.

“The defense played great in the second half,” head coach Andy Shay said. “We just got a couple of key stops.”

The Bulldogs continued to shut down UMass attackers for the start of the fourth quarter. Gibson made the lead 11–8 with a goal at 2:05 into that quarter, and the three-point Yale edge stood for another five minutes.

Then Hayes started a UMass rally with about seven minutes left to play, and the Minutemen peppered Yale’s net with shots to tie the game at 12 with 1:21 on the clock. But Eli defenders helped Yale to regain possession with less than a minute remaining. Douglass snagged a loose ground ball and sent a feed to the waiting Gibson, who found the back of the net to seal the 13–12 win.

“There was a lot of turmoil,” Gibson said. “Luckily I was able to finish it.”

Yale takes the field again on Sunday for a 1 p.m. contest against Presbyterian in Richmond, Va.