For the second straight game it was a case of too little, too late.

The Penn State men's lacrosse team fell Saturday to the University of Maryland-Baltimore County (UMBC) 9-8 despite mounting a late comeback scoring two goals within the last 34 seconds.

Freshman Marc Young scored with 34 seconds left to cut the lead to two and senior Will Driscoll scored with 10 seconds left, giving him a hat trick, but the Nittany Lions simply ran out of time.

The Lions (3-3, 0-2) held a 6-4 lead late into the third quarter before senior Gavin Stringer scored a goal with 36 seconds remaining in the quarter to draw the Retrievers (2-3, 1-2) within one.

UMBC was able to carry that momentum over to the final quarter as it scored four unanswered goals to take a 9-6 lead.

The Retrievers scored three goals within 50 seconds midway through the fourth quarter, using their domination of the faceoff.

"I think they were just beating us on faceoffs," Penn State freshman Mike Jacober said. "And that led to fast breaks and they played harder than us and we had no answer."

The Lions trailed 4-3 at halftime as all three of their first-half goals came in the first quarter. Jacober scored at the 6:04 mark of the third to tie the game.

It was followed up with a goal by freshman Will Cutler and another tally by Driscoll. At this point of the contest the Lions did not sit back, something that Penn State coach Glenn Thiel regrets.

"We had a two-goal lead. We should have sat on the lead and we didn't," Thiel said. "They got a faceoff goal, it was just too hectic a pace and we took too many shots and couldn't put them where we wanted."

The relaxed pace that UMBC played forced the Lions to take care of the ball and take advantage of their possessions.

Despite scoring just one goal in the third period, the Retrievers stayed patient and worked the ball around.

"Their style of play really slows down the game," sophomore Charlie Perry said.

"It makes the other team play more patient. When they do that you have to capitalize off your chances because there is not as many as usual and we didn't do it."

With the loss the Lions dropped their third straight game and now with two losses in the ECAC, their chances of a division title have taken a serious hit. Thiel is more concerned right now about becoming a good team.

"We are not that good right now, we don't really know ourselves right now," Thiel said "We have a lot of things we got to put together right now."