Worcester, Mass. – Phil Pichel (Hopkinton, Mass.) scored three of his team-high four goals in the fourth quarter and visiting Plymouth State scored six goals in the final 15 minutes, rallying to stun Clark University, 10-8 in non-league men's lacrosse action on Wednesday evening on Granger Field.

The loss for the Cougars is their first of the season at home and drops their record to 5-4 overall, while the surging Panthers have now won five straight to improve to 6-1.

PSU, who has now won four straight over the Scarlet and White dating back to the 2012 season, opened the game with back-to-back goals from Colin Clafflin (Pembroke, Mass.) and Nicco Sorrentino (Chelmsford, Mass.) to jump out to a quick 2-0 lead midway through the opening period.

Clark answered back with a man-up strike from Will Mandracchia (Melrose, Mass.) off of a Peter Christiansen (Seattle, Wash.) feed.

Pichel pushed the Panther advantage back to two goals with his first of the night with help from Mike Trocchi (Danvers, Mass.) right before the first quarter ended.

Nick Johnson (Amherst, Mass.) and Alex Croatti traded goals to open the second stanza, but when Johnson connected with Rob Holden (East Longmeadow, Mass.) for his 15th of the season with a little less than six minutes to play in the first half, the Cougars were within one at 4-3.

Johnson then almost single-handedly put Clark ahead in the third. First, he evened the score with his second of the night with an assist to Keegan Callahan (Tewksbury, Mass.). Then late in the quarter he scored two more times less than a minute apart to give the Cougars a 6-4 edge going into the fourth.

Pichel then went to work for Plymouth State, leading the charge as they stormed back to score four goals in the first seven-plus minutes of the period. Pichel had a pair of unassisted tallies and another that was assisted by Mike Morrissey (Franklin, Mass.) and the fourth was Croatti's second.

Now down 8-6, Clark responded with two goals in less than a minute – one an even strength marker from Johnson and the other a man-up rocket from Mandracchia – that knotted the game at 8-8 with under six minutes to play.

Unfortunately for the Cougars, however, in a game of runs, the Panthers had the final one, scoring two goals in the final 1:41. The first came from Aaron Boss (Keene, N.H.) and the other from C.J. Frates (Merrimack, N.H.) into an empty net as Clark tried to apply additional pressure.

After having back-to-back games where eight different players scored goals for Clark, only three players found the back of the net tonight for the hosts – Johnson (5), Mandracchia (2) and Holden (1).

The Cougars did get an excellent effort in between the pipes from Jacob Reiner (Famington, Conn.) who made a career-high 19 saves.

Chris St. George (Marblehead, Mass.) needed to only make nine saves to secure his sixth win of the season, while also scooping up four groundballs.

Both teams return to action on Saturday with 4:00 p.m. starts. The Panthers visit Little East rival UMass-Dartmouth, while Clark has a home contest against NEWMAC newcomer, Coast Guard.