RICHMOND, Va. – The first-ever Atlantic 10 Men’s Lacrosse postseason game was an instant classic.
 
No. 4 seeded High Point pulled an upset, topping regular season champion Saint Joseph’s Thursday at Robins Stadium. The loss was the first against an A-10 foe this year. The Panthers advance to the inaugural A-10 title game Saturday to face the winner between No. 2 Richmond and No. 3 Massachusetts.
 
Down 12-9 with 6:55 remaining in the third quarter, the Panthers went on a scoring frenzy and pulled within one at 12-11 on Nick Murphy’s goal at 5:07 in the third. Jack Vanoverbeke then scored his second of a team-high three goals to knot the game at 12 at 13:57 in the fourth. Ryan Hynes game the Panthers the lead at 12:10 and just over three minutes later, Jaxson Lamb pushed the lead to two.
 
The Hawks scored twice in the final 2:08, including a tally with two seconds left by Levi Verch with a man advantage, but those two goals sandwiched HPU scores by Carter Page and Vanoverbeke that offset the SJU rally and gave the Panthers the win.
 
Saint Joseph’s started the game hot, scoring five of the games first six goals. That kicked off a back and forth series of streaks with Hawks taking a lead and the Panthers fighting back. Prior to Hynes goal, HPU’s only lead of the game came at 13:01 in the first, when Jack Sawyer scored the opening goal. But SJU tied it less than a minute later on a Matt Bohmer tally and the Panthers were playing catch up from there.
 
Hunter Vines and Vanoverbeke each had three goals for High Point, with Vanoverbeke leading with 4 assists. Goalkeeper Parker Green scooped a seven ground balls and Brayden Mayea and Grant Ammann each had a pair of caused turnovers. The Panthers were 14-for-33 in face offs and tallied 45 total shots, 28 of which were on goal. Green made 10 saves for the purple and white.
 
Page and Bohmer also scored three goals apiece and Zach Cole had a game-high 10 ground balls. Cole won 19 of the 33 faceoffs and the Hawks recorded 41 shots, 24 of which were on goal. SJU goalie Shayne Ryan made 12 saves.