NEW LONDON, Conn. – Patrick Watson scored with 1:20 left lifting third-seeded Springfield to a 10-9 win over second-seeded Coast Guard in the New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) semifinals.

Springfield improves to 8-8 on the season advances to the NEWMAC championship game on Saturday while Coast Guard finishes 9-8. The Bears beat Springfield 13-9 in the regular season.

Coast Guard was seeking its fourth straight NEWMAC championship game appearance. It was the Bears first loss in the NEWMAC semifinals, the Bears are now 3-1 all-time in the semifinals.

Dan Lucas (9-8) had 16 saves in goal for Coast Guard and finished the season with a school record 205 saves.

Caleb Holdridge finished the season with a single season record 45 assists, to go with 48 goals and 93 points, both of which are the second most in a single season in program history.

Taylor Gustafson led the Bears with three goals while Nate Gee had two goals and a team-high three assists for Coast Guard.

Gustafson scored the only goal of the first quarter less than two minutes in and the Bears led 1-0 after one quarter as they outshot the Pride 11-5 in the quarter.

Zach Schuette tied the game just 37 seconds in to the second quarter and then scored again giving Springfield a 2-1 lead as the Pride erupted for three goals in a span of 93 seconds to take a 4-1 lead with 8:36 left in the first half.

The teams would trade goals to close out the half as the Pride led 5-2 at half.

Gustafson scored just 23 seconds into the third quarter to start an offensive explosion by Coast Guard as the Bears scored the first six goals of the second half as the Bears took an 8-5 lead with 6:36 left in the third. Gustafson and Gee each had two of the six goals in the outburst.

Schuette scored back-to-back goals for the Pride to close out the third quarter cutting the Coast Guard lead to 8-7.

The Pride tied the game 8-8 on a goal by Jarrett Nagengast with 13:03 left.

Gaige Kruger took a pass from Gee and scored with 3:24 left giving the Bears a 9-8 lead before Alek Turi tied it with 2:06 remaining.

Dean Pesce (5-4) had seven saves in goal to get the win for Springfield.