Middlebury tied the match at 2-2 in the 72nd minute, but a goal from Bates' Peabo Knoth with 45 seconds left in overtime gave the Bobcats a 3-2 victory on a rainy and windy Saturday. The match served as a Red Card Cancer match where funds raised benefited Camp Ta-Kum-Ta and the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center. Fifteenth-ranked Middlebury (9-2-3, 4-2-3) returns to action Tuesday when it closes out the regular season with a 3:00 p.m. match at Williams, while Bates (6-6-2, 2-6-1) hosts Colby on Wednesday at 8:00 p.m.       

The Panthers started the scoring at 16:08 of the opening half when Kyle Moffat tapped in a rebound off an initial shot by Drew Goulart. The score was Moffat's third of the season.

The hosts nearly doubled the lead twice over the next few minutes. A shot by Goulart from the right side in the 22nd minute was saved by Bates' defender Jack Martell on the right post, while Moffat had a shot just seconds later from three yards skip off his leg and hit the crossbar.

Bates tied the score 1-1 at the 34:31 mark when Matt DiVite collected a loose ball on the right side 25 yards out, blasting a knuckling shot that tucked into the upper-right corner of the Panther net.

Knotted at 1-1 following the intermission, the visitors grabbed their first lead of the contest. DiVite scored his second of the match, heading in a cross from Luke McNabb at 56:25 from the left on a set piece following a Panther foul.

Following a Bobcat foul just outside the penalty box, Goulart served the ball from the right into the box toward the feet of Tom Bean, who tied the match at 2-2 when he tapped it in at 71:13 for his second tally of the season.

With time winding down in the 10-minute overtime period, Bates' Julien Williamson sent a cross from the left side which skipped over a Panther defender toward Knoth. He juked his way around Panther goalkeeper Greg Sydor and calmly tapped the ball into the net for the game-winning goal at 99:15.

Both teams recorded 13 shots and five corner kicks in the match. Sydor recorded four saves in the setback, while Robbie Montanaro also stopped four shots for the visitors.

With the win, the Bobcats reclaim the Hedley Reynolds Cup. Awarded annually, the cup is named after Thomas Hedley Reynolds, who served in administrative roles at both institutions. He began his tenure as the Dean of Men at Middlebury in 1957, and became the Dean of the College seven years later. He then served as the president of Bates from 1967 through 1989.