When the season ends, and head coach Jessica Drummond’s Oregon lacrosse team (4-2) reflects on their 16-game journey through the schedule, the details of Saturday’s game against the UC Davis Aggies (2-4) aren’t likely to be remembered moment by moment.

The result will probably be lumped in with many others, another tally amid a sprint of a season.
But for one crisp Eugene afternoon, in front of a near-split crowd at Papé Field, the Ducks and Aggies — and large swaths of their rival fan bases — hung on the anticipation of every little twist.

And in the Ducks’ 10-9 win, there were plenty of them in a game that featured an early Aggies advantage, a dramatic last-second of a half goal, a 4-0 Oregon run in the third quarter and with a last-minute goal from Lily Fortin, an improbable win for Oregon.

“That team is so gritty, and they come out so hard,” Drummond said of UC Davis. “I knew they were going to come out fast, and we needed a bounce back… this was going to be a good chance to see how much progress we made this week.”

It didn’t look like it would go this way, not with UC Davis dominating possession in the first half and going to half up two. Not when, in the first half, the Ducks played 30 great seconds of defense on a possession, only for Ava Horrocks to get the ball and convert with ten seconds left in the first half. A similar series of events came when UC Davis scored with a minute left in the third quarter.

But Oregon won every moment that mattered, none bigger than Fortin’s goal with 1:13 remaining. Drummond said she prepared the Ducks for moments like Saturday in practice all week.

“Honestly, I’m going to be thinking about how hard I pushed them this week in practice, just being super intense putting them in high-pressure chaotic moments,” Drummond said. “It helps them not feel it on game day and be prepared for those high-pressure moments… We tried to come into this game not letting teams have a three-goal run and I think we did that today.”

Instead, Oregon mounted a 4-0 run in the third quarter, and with the help of Fortin’s clutch goal, proved pivotal in the come-from-behind win.

“Just momentum is huge,” Drummond said. “I think we had a good number of people on offense being in there, being a presence, no matter who was in there today.”

The Ducks scored seven goals in the second half, compared to just three over the first 30 minutes.

“We were much more connected in the second half,” Fortin said. “Taking halftime to come back, reset and just go back to basics. Having that reflected in the second half was big.”

Oregon clinched its win in the final seconds when goalie Francesca Viteritti blocked an ensuing Davis attack in the final seconds.

“The attack was huge for me this week, helping me see what shots I would face in the game,” Viteritti said.

It’s a pipe dream for Oregon in its current form to be able to seriously compete with some of the best teams in its conference. General geography, NIL budgets and a whole lot of precedent make that so. But against teams like UC Davis, a seven-hour drive away for the healthy contingent of Aggie fans that were in attendance at Papé Field, Oregon lacrosse is now at a point where it can expect to win — and the Ducks did.

Oregon will take on Delaware State on Wednesday at noon.