As a steady spring rain fell from grey skies and fans shivered from lingering winter cold at Bayside Field, the high stakes of the game to come remained perfect.

What ensued was an exciting rematch of last season’s Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) title game Wednesday afternoon with the Roger Williams University Hawks falling just short to defending league champion Endicott College 14-9 in a critical game for league supremacy.

“They definitely capitalized off our mistakes,” said senior midfielder Kaelin Hogan. “I mean, we’re ready to see them in the championship, but I think we realized today that we have a lot to learn in order to get there and how to beat them.”

The Hawks were led by Hogan and freshman Devon Sarazin with three goals each, while senior Carly Martin added two goals and sophomore Shayne Rivard had one.

RWU (7-3, 2-1 CCC) entered the matchup first in the conference coming off three straight victories and was undefeated at home with a half game lead over Endicott (7-3, 3-0 CCC). While the Hawks played a hard-fought battle, the Gulls put their stamp on the game early and forced the Hawks to play from behind.

Endicott got the scoring started just 1:34 into the contest when sophomore attacker Meghan Dutchyson found the back of the net. The Hawks answered just under five minutes later with a goal from Martin as she wrapped her shot into the left side of the net with one second remaining on the shot clock.

However, it didn’t take long for Endicott to answer. The Gulls poured on four straight goals over the next nine minutes for a 5-1 lead. Hawks coach Jennifer Fox said it was “the little things” that really contributed to the early and late deficits in the game.

“It was definitely a battle,” Fox said. “We knew coming into it [that] them being conference champions last year that it was going to be a battle. We were the underdogs coming into it. We knew it was gonna take what we said at the beginning of the game. The little things are gonna add up in either direction. And I said it could either be positive or negative and basically the little things were more so in the negative direction for us today.”

Miscommunications defensively, dropped passes and a physical Gulls defense wouldn’t allow the Hawks to play on their terms for much of the afternoon.

While a winning outcome looked unlikely for the Hawks at the time, the Hawks slowly climbed back before the end of the half.

Hogan scored her first of three goals on the day with 8:41 left in the first half to start a surge for the Hawks. The goal was her 307th career point as a Hawk, leaving her alone at the top of the RWU Women’s Lacrosse All-Time Career Points list, passing Kelsey Rahilly (‘15).

Behind winning some faceoffs and making better decisions in the attack area, RWU tacked on four more goals to take a 6-5 lead with 2:33 left in the half.

Shortly after, the Gulls responded with two more goals to take a 7-6 advantage into the break.

Endicott would tally five more goals to take a commanding 12-6 lead with 18:46 left to play, capitalizing on RWU’s offensive mishaps, as well as taking advantage of a young and injury-riddled RWU defense.

With a lot of time left on the clock, RWU began a late rally with scores from Rivard, Hogan and Sarazin, but two more late goals by Endicott sealed the deal.

Despite the loss, coach Fox was encouraged by the fight and resilience her team showed to climb back into the game, explaining that it will only make them better as a group.

“This is definitely gonna get them going even more and I think the leadership is what does it,” she said. “I’m excited to see how much they turn it on after today because they definitely will.”

Moving forward, Fox stressed that in order for her team to bounce back and come out on the winning end of their remaining five conference games and see Endicott again, they will have to focus on what they do well and put in the extra work.

Hogan reiterated that message.

“She reminded us that we can’t stop working,” Hogan said. “We have to keep training. Their players are putting in time after practice so we have to do the same. And we have UNE next so our next focus is on them and I’m sure we’ll see Endicott again.”

RWU will host the University of New England Nor’easters in a 3:30 p.m. matchup on Saturday, April 7.