The comeback fell one goal and several seconds short.

The Wallkill Panthers entered the fourth quarter trailing the James I. O’Neill Raiders by three goals and went on a surge, and had possession with 3 seconds to go, but couldn’t score the equalizer in a 10-9 loss in a non-league girls’ lacrosse game at Wallkill Senior High School’s Robinson Field.

“It was so close,” Wallkill senior Emma Dilemme said. “Especially in the last few seconds.

Dilemme led the Panthers with five goals, four of which came in the fourth quarter. Brianna Merrill and Hallie Yerves scored two goals each.

Merrill had scored a goal late in the third quarter that pulled the Panthers to within two goals at 6-4, but a loose ball rolled into the Wallkill goal with 1 second left in the third quarter to give the Raiders a 7-4 lead.

“We weren’t doing well in the first half,” Dilemme said. “We were just like, ‘let’s continue this, and let’s work even harder.’ It was a close game at that point.”

The Raiders never led by more than three goals at any point in the first three quarters, until a goal by Emery Deekens gave the Raiders a 9-5 lead with 7:41 left in the game.

However, two straight goals by Dilemme pulled the Panthers to within two goals.

“She was one of the goals playing catch (with the Raiders’ goalkeeper early in the game),” Wallkill coach Rich Daubel said. “We just changed up where she’s shooting and she actually did what I asked, and four of her five goals came low.

That was what needed to be done. So, I’m proud of that. She took that advice and then executed it.”

O’Neill’s Veronica Arbogast answered with a goal with 4:45 remaining to restore the three-goal lead, but about 3 minutes later, Dilemme’s fifth goal cut it back to two goals.

“We came into this with a positive mindset,” Dilemme said. “I think it really worked out and we definitely did a lot better than we expected. We were continuously working hard, especially in that fourth quarter.”

With 29 seconds left in the game, Merrill brought the ball up, passed it forward to Yerves, who bounced it into the net pulling the Panthers to within one goal for the first time since early in the game.

The Panthers were on the attack again with about 3 seconds remaining when Daubel called a timeout. However, the Panthers didn’t have enough time to get a shot off before the final horn went off.

“They never gave up, and that’s the big thing,” Daubel said. “They are starting to believe in themselves, and they never gave up. I couldn’t be more proud of them. Winning would have been euphoric, but we had the chance. We just needed a few more seconds, and we almost had it anyway.”

The Panthers finished the week on Saturday when they hosted the Newburgh Free Academy Goldbacks, looking to avenge an early season, 14-4, loss.

It had been a difficult season for the second-year Panthers, whose only win was a 14-6 win over the Middletown Middies and saw Daubel take over as head coach from Frank Croce in late April.

However, Dilemme, one of the team’s eight seniors, feels good about the program’s future.

“It’s a good program, especially for starting from where it was,” Dilemme said. “I think we improved and evolved pretty fast. I’m sad to go, but it was great. It was a nice ride.”