The men’s lacrosse team surrendered a fourth-quarter lead — the third time in its last four games — to Colgate University on Saturday, falling 11-8 to the defending Patriot League champions and extending its losing streak to four.
Coming into the weekend matchup, the Leopards (1-4 Patriot League, 5-6 overall) looked to flush out the previous week’s last-second overtime defeat of Bucknell University.
“Think about the game for 24 hours, what went right, what didn’t go right, and just attack the start of the week,” sophomore attacker Ben DiBattista said coming off the loss to Bucknell.
Colgate (3-3 Patriot League, 4-6 overall) found the net two minutes into play, followed by senior midfielder Jack Irish connecting from the middle to knot up the score. The hosts took advantage of the Leopards’ seven first-quarter turnovers to control possession, slotting in two more goals for a 3-1 lead to head into the second.
“As an offense, we’ve got to value the ball better,” DiBattista said. “We’ve got to do a better job taking care of it.”
The Raiders extended their lead to three with a top-left corner dart, but the Maroon and White defense kept them scoreless for the rest of the half. Senior midfielder Aidan Kopen and sophomore attacker Josh Heaney rattled off goals 45 seconds apart to cut the gap to 4-3 entering halftime.
“Defensively as a whole unit, the main thing is getting the ball in our offense’s hands,” senior goalie Joe Doherty said. “The defense always does a great job of giving me the shots I want to see.”
DiBattista tied things up early in the third with a shot down low assisted by sophomore midfielder Nick Blalock. Three minutes later, freshman attacker Charlie Foley spun from behind the net and found the angle to take a 5-4 lead.
“That was an excellent pass by Blalock,” DiBattista said. “It was exactly what we repped all week in practice, so it felt like second nature.”
Colgate finally broke its scoring drought after 20 minutes, managing a 3-0 spurt to close out the quarter with a 7-5 lead.
The Maroon and White pieced together another run to kick off the fourth. Sophomore midfielder Joe Duggan put one in off a stutter step, followed by DiBattista converting from short side high two minutes later. DiBattista’s potential go-ahead goal off the faceoff rebounded off the post, but junior defender George Urich scooped the deflection and put it past the Raider goalie to take an 8-7 lead.
However, Colgate dominated the rest of the contest, breaking off four unanswered after the nine-minute mark. Despite the Leopard defense holding their own down one, the Raiders cashed in insurance off a costly Maroon and White turnover, and put the exclamation point on the victory on an open-net goal with a minute remaining.
“Putting together a full 60 minutes is something we were really focused on right now,” Doherty said about the Leopards’ recent fourth-quarter struggles. “That next play mentality, it doesn’t matter what happened before. Just keep going.”
Despite the loss, Doherty finished the day with 13 saves in net for a .542 save percentage. Additionally, junior midfielder Nick Faccone dominated on face-offs, winning 17 of 23 against the Raiders.
“He did a great job staying level-headed the whole game, and gave us a really good opportunity to come out on top,” DiBattista said.
The Leopards will host No. 23 Loyola Maryland University (4-1 Patriot League, 7-4 overall) on Saturday as they look to win their first game since March 6.