HAMBURG, N.Y. – After falling behind by six goals at the break, the Hilbert College men's lacrosse team battled back at the start of the fourth quarter, fighting to keep their play-off hopes alive.    

But time ran out on the Hawks as they suffered a 14-10 defeat to Cazenovia College this afternoon.

Hilbert fell to sixth place after the loss and with only the top four teams moving on, they are out of post-season play-offs.  

The Hawks have one final game on their 2016 schedule and it also happens to be the team's day to celebrate their seniors.   Hilbert will host #2 Keuka College (5-1) Wednesday, April 27.  The Wolves dropped a battle of NEAC un-beatens today to Morrisville (6-0).

Brenden Deady posted 20 saves between the pipes for the Hawks.  Matthew Simon collected four goals and added an assist as the Hawks fell to 5-7 overall and 3-4 in NEAC.

The Wildcats scored the game's first three goals before David DeCocq used a Marc O'Neill pass for Hilbert's 1^st goal with just under four minutes remaining in the opening quarter.

Both teams traded scores (4-2) before Cazenovia went on a 6-0 run which stretched around the half time break. 

Trailing 10-2 with 10 minutes on the clock in the third session, the Hawks turned up their offense. 

Simon hooked-up with Travis Hicks before he used a James Duffy pass to score back-to-back goals at 7:30.  45-second later, Duffy fed Nathaniel Hyman for another marker and Simon shared the ball with Andrew Tirabassi for the fourth consecutive goal at 5:36, cutting the deficit to 10-6.

The Wildcats stretched their lead back to six with a goal at the end of the third and at the start of the fourth quarter.  But Hilbert responded with three more hits. 

Patrick Crangle (Hyman) scored his first of the day and Simon added two more (DeCocq and Hicks) cutting the difference to four.

But a pair of Cazenovia goals, scored thirty-seconds apart, broke Hilbert's momentum. 

Crangle scored his 16th goal of the season unassisted as time expired.

Cazenovia held a 34 to 18 advantage in shots-on-goal as Deady put on another high double-digit show between the pipes.  Cazenovia's keeper was credited with eight saves compared to Deady's 20.

Hicks and Hyman each collected six ground balls to lead the Hawks and Hyman (4) and Bryan Binaxas (3) were tough on defense with caused turnovers.