The Ithaca College men’s lacrosse team’s seven-game win streak came to an end with a 14–10 loss to the St. Lawrence University Saints on April 2 at Higgins Stadium. With the loss, the South Hill squad falls to 8–2 on the season while St. Lawrence University improves to 6–2.
The Saints jumped out to an early lead in the first quarter with six goals to the Bombers’ four. Sophomore midfielder/attack Judge Murphy and senior attack Jack Hennessey each had two goals in the quarter for the Saints. But the Bombers had a much better second quarter, outscoring the Saints 4–2. At halftime, the game was tied at eight.
In the third quarter, the Bombers continued their momentum, outscoring their opponents 2–1 to make it 10–9 in favor of Ithaca College going into the final frame.
The Saints went on to score five unanswered goals to come away with the victory. Murphy scored a goal to tie the game in the first 50 seconds of the quarter. Three minutes later, senior attackman Mark Mahoney scored with 11:09 left in the quarter, breaking the tie. The Saints would later tack on three more goals to walk away with the victory.
St. Lawrence’s scoring was led by Murphy, who had five goals on the day. Graduate student midfielder Josh Huiatt and Hennessey each added three goals.
The Bombers’ leading scorer was sophomore attackman John Sramac who had four goals, bringing his season total to 29. He is currently the team’s leading scorer this season. Senior attackman Blake Eischen had two goals and one assist on the day, while junior attackman Jake Erickson had one goal and five assists.
The loss moves the Bombers from third place in the Liberty League standings to fourth place, staying just ahead of St. Lawrence.
Head coach Jeff Long said the team must evaluate why it was not successful in the fourth quarter, despite going in with a lead and keeping the game very close through the first three frames.
“We played a really good three quarters and I really can’t tell what the turning point of the game was,” Long said. “We need to watch, film and see kinda where things broke down after three quarters because I think up to that point, I think we played really, really well.”
The Bombers will be playing five out of their next six games against Liberty League teams to end the season. Long says that better discipline is important going forward.
“In this league, you got to play a full 60 minutes,” Long said. “We need to be more disciplined all over the field, especially when it’s a tight game the way it was today.”
