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Just one season ago, the Springbrook boys lacrosse team took its lumps in a 4-10 campaign, which included a 10-2 thumping at the hands of Northeast Consortium rival Blake.

The Blue Devils made a quick turnaround this year, improving their record to 7-4 by coming from behind to beat Blake, 4-3, in an overtime thriller for their third consecutive win.

Jake Mondonedo got Blake (3-8) on the board lightning-quick by scoring an unassisted goal just after the opening faceoff. The defenses for both teams then assumed control of the game.

Blake dominated possession for most of the first half, holding the ball 10 of the 12 minutes in the first quarter, but at halftime only had two goals to show for the effort.

"I thought our defense played really well tonight," said Blake head coach Patrick Howley. "We had some good possessions, but bottom line is, we need to get the ball in the net."

The second goal came when Mondonedo finished a crisp feed from Richard Pak to give the Bengals a 2-1 halftime edge. Blake had its chances in the first half, but most of the attempts were off-target bounce shots.

One of the main reasons for Springbrook's inability to maintain possession was the absence of co-captain Adam Abramson, who played sparingly in the first half.

"My strings broke on my stick and I had a hard time adjusting," said Abramson. "If a stick is strung a certain way, it will throw down every time and I was struggling with that for the rest of the game."

Even with Abramson on the field in the second half and the Blue Devils now creating most of the offensive chances, they were still unable to penetrate the Bengal defense. Brady Ebert fed Matt Rankin for a textbook transition goal to pad Blake's lead to 3-1 heading into the final quarter.

Joseph Galeano (two goals), who scored Springbrook's first-half tally, injected some life in the Springbrook sideline when his laser – deadened by Blake goalie Daniel Bell (nine saves) – went just over the line to break a scoring drought of over two quarters for Springbrook.

Abramson then set up Zach Good on a two-man advantage to tie the game, and after several chances for both teams in the final minutes, the clock expired, sending the content to overtime.

"They settled it down on offense and the defense really stepped up in the second half," said Springbrook head coach Darren Murray. "Our defense has really been the reason we've kept every game close, no matter who we've played."

As difficult as scoring was in this contest, it was a simple isolation play for Abramson behind the net that decided the outcome. He made a strong inside cut to the goal and a jump shot that beat Bell, followed by an explosion on the Springbrook sideline and disbelief on Blake's.

"I knew I had the matchup and I wanted to win bad," Abramson said. "[Blake's] our rivals; we know all them, they know all of us and we wanted it bad."