It would be very easy to say that the Mt. Ararat High School boys didn’t lose their Eastern Maine Class A lacrosse quarterfinal tilt with Deering on Tuesday … the Eagles simply ran out of time.

The third-seeded Eagles (9- 4) put on a furious fourthquarter rush, scoring five goals with Deering’s Rick Murray supplying the eventual game-winner off a Jacob Tuttle feed with 8:53 left for a dramatic 8-7 verdict.

Here’s how the fourth period went:

Sam Hornblower scored for Deering (7-6) at 2:19 for what seemed like a commanding 7- 2 lead as the Eagles struggled mightily against Deering’s strong defense, led by Matt Fechenda, James Doyle, Griffin Asbury, Hornblower, Geoff Mathews and goaltender Jon Deloach.

However, Mt. Ararat had the fresher legs down the stretch, started winning some faceoffs and making good decisions.

Jeremy Williams and Jack Mickles sandwiched goals around Murray’s tally to make it 8-4 with 7:10 left.

Jason Tome split the twine with 5:35 remaining, Williams converted a Blane Miller feed 33 seconds later and Tome won an important faceoff to keep the rally going.

After numerous turnovers, missed passes, frantic play and heightened emotions down the stretch, Nick Dow scored with 25.8 seconds left for an 8-7 game.

Mt. Ararat went on the offensive and a loose ball trickled across the Deering goal, mere inches from the left post before a Deering defender picked it up behind the net.

“Just a couple of more minutes,” said Mt. Ararat coach Matt Haskell. “We just ran out of time. But, I thought we played well, never gave up, especially in the fourth quarter.

“In the second half we started to win some faceoffs and we had the fresh legs, and started running better.”

First score

Things started well for the Eagles, who play out of the Kennebec Valley Athletic Conference.

Although Deering came out strong (goaltender Ed McGuire had to make a couple of standout saves early), the Eagles got on the board with 6:31 left when Williams snapped off a 10-yarder from a Will Hirnak feed.

But, the Deering defense dug down deep and didn’t allow any more Eagle penetration.

Hard-firing Murray notched the first of his four goals with a viscous onetimer 90-seconds later for a 1-1 game. Mathews (Adam Rodriguez, Hornblower), nailed the upper right corner of the net with 2:56 left for a 2- 1 Rams lead.

Murray scored at 2:23 of the second period and Deloach stonewalled Mt. Ararat’s Dow before Brett Harmon and Murray scored for a 5-1 halftime lead.

The visiting Rams held a 27-14 edge in groundballs through 24 minutes and won five of eight faceoffs.

Mt. Ararat snapped a 25- minute scoreless drought when Kyle Lussier converted a Mickles feed with 4:57 left in the third period.

However, Deering’s Billy Farrell picked up a loose ball at midfield and sauntered in to score 50 seconds later for a 6-2 game, setting up an improbable finish.

Williams and Zach Greene had five groundballs each for Mt. Ararat, while Tome and Hirnak picked up four each.

The Eagles graduate McGuire, Miller, Ben Volk, Ben Foley, Tome, Kevin Nolan, Colton Burne, Eric Farnsworth, Ryan Smith, Greene, Hirnak and Joey Burr.