TROY, N.Y. - In a matchup of nationally-ranked opponents whose campuses are 15 miles apart, the No. 4 Union College men's lacrosse team got six points from Peter Burnes and five from Kieran McGovern as the Dutchmen held off a fourth quarter rally to defeat No. 12 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) 12-9 in a Liberty League contest at East Campus Stadium. Union improves to 11-1 overall and 3-1 in the conference, while the Engineers drop to 9-3 and 3-2.

Trailing 10-5 in the early stages of the fourth quarter, RPI scored four consecutive times to get within one with just under three minutes to play. Cooper Urban tallied at 11:43 and Connor Glosner followed at the 11:11 mark. Trey Berry then scored back-to-back goals with assists from Trey Froehlich (9:37) and Urban (2:53), respectively, to pull the home team to within 10-9.

Union got a man-up opportunity off the draw immediately after Berry's second of the game (5th of the season) and Burnes set up McGovern to make it a two-goal game with 2:22 to play. The duo hooked up again with McGovern scoring with only 59 seconds remaining for the final margin.

Burnes scored the first two goals of the game before Rensselaer's Ryan Raftery found the back of the cage midway through the first quarter. McGovern made it 3-1, but Urban countered early in the second to make it 3-2. Another McGovern goal put Union ahead by a pair, but Luke Murphy found Glosner for a goal and Devon Boyko followed immediately off a face off win by Angelo Venuto to tie the game at 4-4. Hayden Frey closed the half with two goals for the Dutchmen.

Venuto won the opening face off of the second half and scored five seconds into the third quarter to pull Rensselaer to within a goal, but the Dutchmen scored the next four to build a 10-5 margin by the end of the frame. Burnes started things when he forced a turnover following a Joseph Perry save, picked up the loose ball and scored to make it 7-5 with 13:54 to play in the third. McGovern notched his 18th of the season a minute later and Brian Davis made it 9-5 about one minute after that. Keaton McCann's first of the game and 22nd of the year at 7:03 put Union ahead by five.

Following approximately 12 minutes of scoreless action, the Engineers scored four straight of their own to pull within one, but the Dutchmen held them off. Dan Donahue made eight saves in the win, while also registering two ground balls and two caused turnovers. Matthew Paolatto won 12 of 14 face offs and collected nine pickups and Burnes added six ground balls to go with his three goals and two assists. McGovern had four goals and Frey tallied three points.

Urban's three points led the Engineers, who got two points from four different players. Venuto and Caleb Oswari both had four ground balls and Perry finished with 19 saves for the Engineers, who were 15 of 20 on clears. Union was successful on 16 of 17 attempts.

RPI is back home on Saturday when it hosts St. Lawrence University in a conference matchup. The Dutchmen host Skidmore College in a league game on Wednesday night.