ERIE, Pa. – Junior Alex Manea scored with 21 seconds left in regulation to lift No. 7 Mercyhurst past city-rival Gannon 1-0 on Sunday afternoon in front of a vocal and energetic partisan crowd.

The victory moves the Lakers to 13-2-3 overall, 4-2-3 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference. Mercyhurst finishes the regular season tied with Slippery Rock for fourth-place but will not advance as one of the four teams to the PSAC Tournament since SRU defeated the Lakers 4-3 in head-to-head competition on Oct. 27.

Meanwhile, Gannon falls to 11-7 overall, 4-5 in the PSAC. If the Golden Knights had won against Mercyhurst, they would have qualified as the No. 4 seed in the league tournament because they held the tiebreaker over Slippery Rock with a 1-0 double-overtime win on Oct. 13.

Ranked first in the NCAA II Atlantic Region, the Lakers will now wait for selection into the NCAA Tournament. The official NCAA selection show is slated for Monday, November 8 at 7 p.m. via a webcast selection show on NCAA.com.

The Laker defense was tested early in today's match as they shut down a Gannon attack that included four corner kicks and two shots all within five minutes of each other. In the 20^th minute the Lakers went on their own attack recording three shots all within three minutes of each other. Graduate student Oliver Gage gave the Lakers the best chance to take the lead but Jason Barbarino of Gannon made the save. Both defenses excelled in the first half as Gannon took nine shots and the Lakers were held to only five. The Golden Knights applied the offensive pressure with seven corner kicks but to no avail. Any shot that made it through the Laker defense was stopped in the first half by senior Ryan Wagner who saved three on target shots in the first 45 minutes of play.

The offense of Mercyhurst came alive in the second half as they shot 11 times in contrast to seven Golden Knight shots. Graduate student Christoph Hampel had an opportunity to help the Lakers take the lead when he headed a pass toward the goal but Barbarino was there again for the save. During the 89:39 minute mark, senior Arash Fahandezh fed a ball to Manea who struck the ball low and toward the far post, the ball skipped across the ground and past the goal keeper for the tally and what would be the game winner. Gannon didn't have enough time to mount the comeback as the goal was netted with only 21 ticks left on the clock.

Gannon did put three shots on goal in the second half all credited to Mauro Ciocchetti, however Wagner saved all three and ended the match with six saves picking up the win. Wagner is 1-1-0 since filling in for the injured sophomore Diego Gustin. Wagner's counterpart Barbarino now holds a 0-2-0 record this season.

Mercyhurst surely had a bend don't break mentality this afternoon as they absorbed the attack of the Golden Knights throughout the game, then applied their own pressure, which in turn ended with a late goal and the win against the city-rival.