NORTH ANDOVER -- Lanny Ellis already had his mind in overtime. His thoughts cycling back to April 26, when Andover invaded Billerica and handed the Indians their lone loss of the season with a 13-12 overtime triumph.

But there was the ball and space. Even then Ellis didn't quite believe there was enough time to do anything. But he locked eyes with sophomore Greg Melaugh, who was sneaking towards the right post, and overtime was suddenly the furthest thing from Ellis' mind.

Melaugh took a perfect 20-yard feed and quickly bounced one past Andover netminder Dan Powers with 1.3 seconds remaining as Billerica scored twice in the final 10.2 seconds for a thrilling 9-8 triumph at Merimack College.

With the win, Billerica extracted its revenge and secured the Merrimack Valley Conference title.

"I totally thought we were going to OT, but the ball came to me and I sort of saw the defense collapse," said Ellis. "It's so sweet, I can't even explain it. It just opened up right there. Everything parted and (Melaugh) was wide open. I knew he'd put it in if I got it there.

"I knew we'd play until the end, but I thought for sure we were going to overtime. I honestly didn't think we could get two goals that fast, especially off a face-off."

But that's exactly what happened. Trailing by a goal after Andover's Peter Hanson sent a bouncer past Billerica netminder Pat O'Loughlin with 2:17 to play, time seemed to against the Indians. A failed scoring chance gave Andover the ball back with 1:26 to play, but a tireless Indians defense managed to wrestle the ball away.

The Indians called timeout with 19.5 seconds to play trying to set up a potential tying goal. Junior Jeff Scarfo circled 15 yards from the cage before accelerating past his defender and chucking a shot inside the left post to even the game with 10.2 seconds remaining.

Ellis joined just about everyone else in attendance in bracing themselves for another overtime battle between these two schools. But face-off man Gary McKay pulled the draw back towards him and managed to scoop up the loose ball as two defenders pursued. Falling back, McKay lofted the ball to Ellis, who quickly drew the attention of three defenders.

Melaugh crept in behind a defender and hauled in what turned out to be a fortuitously high feed from Ellis. Melaugh quickly slammed down with a bouncer that skipped into the net with little more than a tick to go.

"I saw Lanny get the ball and he looked up and pretty much looked me right in the eys," said Melaugh. "I knew he was going to throw me the ball and I just thought, 'Oh, yeah.'"

Andover was left saying, "Oh, no." Despite leading by two goals on two occasions in the final stanza (5-3 and 7-5), the Warriors simply couldn't hold on.

"I thought we played as hard as we possibly could, but who thought they could score two goals in 10 seconds," said Andover coach Wayne Puglisi. "One of our goals was to keep the game close. We did that. We stretched our lead out to two goals, but they came back twice. They kept their composure and, to me, that's the sign of a championship team."

Billerica's Steve Murray scored the game's first goal, but Andover didn't trail again until the final second. Brendan Hughes (4 goals) scored twice in the opening frame to stake the Warriors to a 3-1 lead at the end of the first quarter and a 3-2 lead at the intermission.

The teams traded goals in the third, but Hughes struck again at 11:33 of the fourth quarter to put his team up two. Even after Billerica roared back to tie the game, Hughes and Justin Malins scored goals 48 seconds apart to push the lead to 7-5 with 5:42 remaining.

Unfazed, Billerica watched Ellis and Melaugh score 1:07 apart to tie the game once again and put into motion the unbelievable finish.

"Any time you can win a game when you're trailing in the final 19 seconds, it does a lot for your confidence," said Billerica coach Chris Burns. "That's a great team we beat. I'm real proud of the way my guys battled until the end."

Any interest in a rubber game, coaches?

"No way," Burns said with a laugh. "I'd prefer to never see them again. Both teams know each other inside and out. Wayne and I could probably coach each other's practices."

Puglisi added, "I don't want to see them, either. Chris and I have talked and I believe they have the talent to succeed in the state tournament. I think they have a legitimate shot to win it all."