BOZEMAN, Mont. – A two goal rally at the end of the fourth quarter that forced overtime for UGF lacrosse was all for naught, as the Colorado School of Mines scored a game winning goal in the extra period to defeat the Argos 11-10 (OT).

"We got called for a very questionable holding penalty in overtime. So we go a man down and get scored on in the man down," said UGF head coach Fred Boekel. "It was a pretty heart wrenching loss."

The loss was particularly heart breaking after UGF rallied from a 10-8 deficit with five minutes remaining in the 4th quarter. First, junior middie Albert Williams brought the Argos within one by scoring his second goal of the game. His goal was then followed by an equalizer from senior middie Joey Moser with 1:07 remaining in regulation.

Those goals were two of just three scored by Great Falls in the entire second half. The rest of the team's goals came in a blistering seven-goal 2nd quarter. During that 15 minute stretch, the Argo attack came alive, finding a team rhythm that has largely escaped the team through much of the season, including a scoreless 1st quarter.

"We started moving the ball and we started running our offense. We weren't turning the ball over and all the sudden life is good," Boekel said. "Then we go out in the second half and we go back to being a team that doesn't move off ball and the guys with the ball in their stick are selfish with it."

With the offense sputtering, the UGF defense bore the brunt of the responsibility for keeping the game close in the second half. The unit limited the Oredigggers four second half goals, benefiting from spending most of the half in their base defense rather than the more aggressive strategy they employed in the first.

"I wasn't that upset with the defense, I was kind of upset with myself. We switched our defensive package for awhile where we pressed out a little bit, but we'd have one guy pressing out and not the other guy," Boekel said. "Finally, we backed out of that. We just weren't ready for that and I take responsibility for that. But other than that, I thought they played really well."

Another bright spot for UGF was the play of freshman Joshua Gavin, who handled faceoff duties for the first time in his playing career. Gavin, who joined the team just a month ago, was the primary faceoff man for the Argos and while the team finished on the wrong end of the battle at the X, he put them in position to do much better than that.

"The kid has been playing lacrosse now for like three weeks or a month and he went out and just did a marvelous job on faceoffs," Boekel said. "He probably won the draw 50 percent of the time. We didn't always get the ground ball but we taught him how to faceoff the day before yesterday. If we keep working on that, that kids going to be a little monster next year."

Despite the loss, the close game still shows progress for the Argos, who have a win and an overtime loss in over the past two games, after losing the previous five games by and average of just under 12 goals. The team's record now stands at 2-6 (0-2) with three games remaining. Those final three games come back-to-back-to-back starting on April 23 against Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma, Wash. All three games are league games and if UGF can win all three they will qualify for postseason play.