The Middletown boys lacrosse team came back to defeat Pilgrim 12-10 in the Division II Championship this weekend at Brown University.

Pilgrim would get a big first half on offense and see both Braxton Bragg and Ryan Barlow record hat tricks. Pilgrim entered the halftime break up 9-6 and led by as many as five points in the second quarter.

Middletown would go on a 4-0 run in the third quarter to regain the lead, and although Barlow would add a goal in the fourth quarter to keep the Pats within striking distance, Middletown would convert on a Pilgrim turnover with less than two minutes left to score and make it 12-10 to wrap up the victory.

Richard Cabral added two goals for Pilgrim while Tyler Fuller scored another.

“We weren’t as aggressive with the ball in the second half, we made a lot of mistakes, our passing wasn’t crisp. We just weren’t looking for the feeds the way we should have been. It didn’t help that Braxton rolled his ankle in the first half, he wasn’t quite the threat that he usually is which made it easier for (Middletown) to deal with us. We just didn’t keep the ball hot, didn’t move the ball in and tried to do too much individually, we didn’t make it a team game,” said Pilgrim coach Alex Gregson of the difference between the two halves.

Pilgrim entered the spring as the Division III champions and was bumped up. Pilgrim was undefeated last season and wrapped up the second seed for this year’s playoff run.

Although it came up short of its goal, Pilgrim proved to be a top unit in its new division.

“We were in every game but one this season. They’re competitors, they wanted to make a statement that last year wasn’t just a fluke, it wasn’t just because we were in DIII. They wanted to move up and make a run and to get here this year shows that they’re the real deal,” Gregson said.

Pilgrim will be losing eight seniors to graduation, but will return a handful of key pieces including Bragg and Barlow.

Gregson is confident that his group will be in strong position to return to the playoffs and compete for another title next year.

“We’re losing eight seniors. Ethan Pezzullo, Jacob Brennan, Griffin Taylor, Ray Facente, it’s definitely going to be a new look but the core is staying the same. We had two freshmen midfielders that will be ready to compete, so we’re going to compete in this division for a long time,” said Gregson.