WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The Embry-Riddle men's lacrosse team dropped a thrilling regular season finale on Wednesday night at Palm Beach Atlantic, 14-13. The Eagles close out the 2024 year at 6-8, going 2-5 in SSC play. An overall successful season for head coach John Jez in his inaugural year, ERAU took down two top-20 teams for the first time in program history.
 
Wednesday's game was one of the more back-and-forth games the Eagles played this season as the Sailfish eked out the one-point win. Pete Abbes paced the Eagles on the attack, registering five points on four goals and an assist, while Coleman Jacobs also picked up yet another hat trick with three tallies. Christian Hofer also potted three goals for a hatty, while Isaiah Hines added two more scores and Christopher Harper scored his eighth on the year as well.
 
In net, Reid Kerr put together an outstanding night with 10 saves in just under 50 minutes of play. Carter Groezinger added three saves to just one goal allowed in the game's final 10:29.
 
Hofer kicked things off, netting the game's first goal at 12:47, but PBA raced out to a 3-1 lead within the next four minutes with three unanswered goals. Abbes broke the streak, however, with an unassisted goal at 5:22. Marcus Needham found Harper at 4:14 to tie things back up at 3-3, before Abbes gave the Eagles a 4-3 advantage with a score with just 37 seconds left in the first.
 
The Sailfish scored the first two goals of the second frame to take the lead however, but with 9:20 left in the half, Hofer notched his second goal, an unassisted effort to knot it back up at 5-5. Hines and Jacobs went back-to-back, the latter of which came at 2:30 from Abbes. But PBA tallied the last goal of the half at 1:41 and the first goal of the second half at 14:05 to go up 8-7. Once again, however, Jacobs and Abbes went back-to-back over within 30 seconds of each other to regain an 9-8 lead for the Blue & Gold.
 
The Fish repaid the favor with two scores of their own from Cooper Porter, but Abbes notched another to tie it once more at 10-10. After falling behind another goal, the Eagles once again tied it back up with a shot from Hines at 1:11 to make it 11-11 heading into the final frame.
 
PBA netted an early fourth-quarter goal, but Hofer completed his hat trick at 14:03 to make it 12-12. But over the course of the next six minutes, there was limited action, minus two more goals from PBA as the Sailfish took the largest lead for either side since the first quarter at 14-12. Jacobs finished his hat trick at 3:47 to bring the Eagles back within a score, but PBA was able to run out the clock to secure the win, ultimately.