TROY, N.Y. - Freshman Cooper Urban scored with 0:01 left in regulation to complete a five-goal comeback and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's lacrosse team defeated Clarkson University 13-12 in a first round game of the Liberty League Tournament. The No. 3 seeded Engineers, who tied the game with 39 seconds to play, improve to 12-4 and advance to the semifinals at No. 2 Union College on Wednesday at 5pm. The No. 6 Golden Knights finish the season with an 8-8 record.

Trailing 12-8 with under eight minutes remaining, RPI cut into the deficit with goals by seniors Lucas Bastarache at 7:19 and JT Kelly at 4:31. JP McGrady, also a senior, made it a one-goal game with 3:59 to play before tying the score off a Bastarache pass with only 39 seconds left. The game-winner was set up by Will Killeen, another senior who also assisted on Kelly's goal. He started the play on the left sideline ran toward the goal and drew a double-team before finding Urban, who ripped a shot from 11 yards away that gave the Engineers their first lead since early in the first quarter.

RPI jumped out to a 3-1 lead on goals from Tim Oslislo, Owen Putman and Kelly, but the Golden Knights scored four times in the final 2:56 of the first frame for a 5-3 lead. Pierce Currie, who had the visitors' first goal, scored twice to tie the score at 3-3 before Bryan Penney took a Currie feed and made it 4-3 for Clarkson with 53 seconds left. Brett Brillhart then scored with 15 ticks remaining. 

Currie opened the second quarter with an assist to Conor Bartlett at 13:41 of the second before Bastarache made it 6-4 with an unassisted goal. Clarkson's Billy Bergan answered for a 7-4 lead at halftime.

Bartlett's 31st of the season began the second half scoring at 12:37 but Urban and McGrady scored 1:28 apart to make it 8-6. Currie had the final goal of the third, his 35th of the year, with 7:01 left in the third quarter.

Penney made it 10-6 with an unassisted goal 1:10 into the fourth, but RPI scored seven of the final nine goals for the win. Kelly started things at 12:37 before Urban tallied at 11:40. Bartlett and Bergan got those two goals back, but RPI scored the final five for the win.

Bastarache finished with five points (2 goals, 3 assists), while Urban had four points (3 goals, 1 assist). Kelly and McGrady had three goals apiece. Quinn Fettig had six ground balls with four caused turnovers, while Putman also had six pickups. Nicki Phelps won a pair of faceoffs late in the fourth quarter that led to the tying and winning goals and Brian Doughty stopped 13 shots.

Rensselaer held a 45-44 edge in ground balls, while Clarkson had the advantage in shots (43-32). The Golden Knights won 18 of 29 faceoffs with Riley Holzman taking them all. He finished with a game-high eight ground balls. 

Currie had seven points (4 goals, 3 assists), Bartlett had four (3 goals, 1 assist) and Penney had three (2 goals, 1 assist). Kevin Dyckman stopped 10 shots in the cage.