In recent Oberlin athletic history, you would be hard-pressed to find a more exhilarating finish.

The Yeomen lacrosse team saved its best for last in Saturday’s game against Shenandoah University, electrifying a substantial Oberlin crowd by scoring the game-winning goal in the contest’s final minute to claim an 11-10 victory.

With the game locked at 10, Shenandoah had control at the one minute mark, but committed a costly turnover when senior Oberlin defenseman Ryan Silakoski picked off a pass at the half-line. Oberlin called a timeout to save possession. When play resumed, sophomore midfielder Will Jaffee took first-year attacker Ian Holljes’ feed from behind the cage and sent the ball past the Shenandoah goalkeeper for the winner with only 39 seconds left to play.

The late-game heroics were set up by Oberlin’s resilience in overcoming small deficits for the entire game. Though the Yeomen scored the first goal, Shenandoah pulled ahead slightly, leading 4-2 after the first quarter. But the Yeomen controlled the second, scoring two unanswered goals to even the score. Shenandoah took the lead again with a four-goal third quarter before the Yeomen scored four of the game’s final six goals en route to victory.

Holljes and Jaffee had five points each, while first-year attacker Bryan Harfenist had four.

“No one had an exceptional game,” junior attacker Nate Beckett said, “but we fed off each other.” Beckett had two goals and an assist in the game.

Not to be ignored was the play of sophomore goaltender Jared Pickard, who made four saves in each quarter, and the play of the Oberlin defense, which was again perfect in killing penalties.

Sophomore midfielder Dave Schlussman said that Pickard “stood out as the MVP of the game. He had a number of monster saves.”

Oberlin suffered a letdown in Wednesday’s game, a 20-2 loss to Denison University that dropped their conference record to 0-3. The Yeomen’s overall record fell back to .500 at 5-5 with the defeat as well.

Beckett and Harfenist scored the goals for Oberlin in the loss, while Holljes assisted on both. Denison entered the season ranked in the top 20 in preseason polls, but has struggled early, finally breaking above .500 to 6-5 by defeating Oberlin.

The Yeomen will try to recapture their winning record this weekend when they face off against two teams in Buffalo, N.Y., Medaille College on Saturday and Keuka College on Sunday. Oberlin already owns an 11-4 home victory against Medaille and will look to make it a perfect 2-0 against the Buffalonians. Keuka, however, comes into the game undefeated at 8-0.