The following is an article published on the 6th page of the April, 15th, 2015 issue of the Spartan Daily, written by Daily staff writer David Bermudez, with photograph by Abraham Rodriguez.

[Photo Caption] SJSU junior defender Junior Medina, No. 4, scrambles for the ball with UC Santa Cruz lacrosse players swarming around him in the Spartans' 11–10 loss to the Banana Slugs at PAL Stadium on Saturday.
 

The San Jose State men's lacrosse team lost its third game in a row in a narrow 11– 10 defeat to UC Santa Cruz on Saturday at PAL Stadium.

Heading into the fourth quarter, SJSU (4–7, 2–3) found themselves up 9–4 and in full control of the game. But UC Santa Cruz spoiled an SJSU win by scoring seven goals in the fourth.

The Banana Slugs scored three goals within the first five minutes of the fourth quarter to cut the Spartans' lead down to two goals at 9–7.

In a back-and-forth game, the Spartan defense could only hold the lead for so long. Santa Cruz attacked in the last six minutes of the fourth quarter and scored four more goals to go up 11–9.

With a minute left in the fourth, SJSU freshman midfielder George Pertessis cut the Banana Slugs' lead down to one, but Santa Cruz came back from four goals down to take the victory

"I thought we played a really good game," junior attacker Travis Rowney said. "Despite the numbers we had against their numbers, we had twice as less as them, we played as hard as we could, we hustled out there, ran out of gas in the fourth quarter but I'm proud of my team because we played hard out there."

Heading into halftime, both teams found themselves tied at four goals apiece and evenly matched. Shots on goal were hitting the post, defenders caused turnovers and intercepted passes went the other way.

Coming out of halftime, it was all Spartans in the third quarter. Four minutes into the third, SJSU junior midfielder Marc LoGrande ran past and around the Banana Slug defenders to put the Spartans up 5–4.

A minute later, Spartan junior attacker Cody Gradone put a spin move on a Santa Cruz defender which allowed him to get an open shot and score a goal to put SJSU up 6–4.

SJSU added to its lead again as Pertessis scored another goal a minute later to increase the Spartans' lead to 7–4. The Spartans added two more goals in the last two minutes of the third quarter to build a comfortable 9–4 lead as they went into the fourth quarter.

Along with the Spartan defense, SJSU sophomore goalie Karl Castillo shut UC Santa Cruz down by not allowing a goal in the third quarter. Castillo stopped every shot that came his way with kick saves and sent the Spartans off to counter with attacks of their own when he stopped the Banana Slugs shots.

"In the third I was really feeling it," Castillo said. "At the same time, I couldn't have done it without the help of my teammates. Our defense really stepped up, they knew their assignments and stuck with it and it helped me to make easy saves."

Despite the big lead heading into the fourth quarter, everything fell apart fast for the Spartans and they were unable to match the intensity Banana Slugs who scored seven goals and winning the game 11–10.

"They're a good team," said Spartan head coach Larry Boehm. "We knew it was going to be a battle. We were equal with them and having a fi ve goal lead is nice, it just wasn't there at the end of the game."

With two games remaining, a win in the next couple of games will put the Spartans into the playoffs. SJSU will host the undefeated University of Nevada Wolf Pack at PAL Stadium on Saturday at 1 p.m.