The unranked Ithaca College men’s lacrosse team showed out in primetime to defeat the No.6 nationally ranked Rochester Institute of Technology Tigers 9-8 April 8 at Higgins Stadium. The Bombers’ defense pumped the brakes on the Liberty League’s top offense to grab the first victory against the Tigers since 2016 and the second in 16 years.
The Bombers’ fate against a conference powerhouse came down to the final six minutes, which were chaotic. With the game tied, senior attacker Tim Rogers danced around his one–on–one defender and began beating him around the edge, so a RIT attacker ditched his assignment to cover Rogers, giving senior midfielder Cullen Adams a wide open lane to take the power shot for the lead. The security of the game remained in question until the final buzzer blew.
While RIT’s defense had many of the same tricks up its sleeve as the Bombers, IC head coach Tommy Pearce’s system catapulted the Bombers to the top.
“I think we’ve been a very good defense all year,” Pearce said. “I think that, you know, it is a very prolific offense, so I think that limiting them in the way that we did was really, really great.”
The highlight reel performances of both goalies, RIT’s senior Alex Zborowski and IC’s senior Andrew Minard left each team fighting to get the ball in the back of the cage. Zborowski ended the night with 15 saves and Minard closely followed with 13. With four minutes left in the game and the Tigers as hungry as ever, Minard made a heroic save, but the ball quickly ended up back in the hands of the RIT. Just feet away from the goal and the defense out of position, a RIT attacker took what should have been an easy goal, but Minard launched his entire body to the side, ricocheting the ball off the top of his stick.
Pearce credited the strong goalie play of both sides, but said his offense gave Zborowski saves he did not have to work hard for.
“We had to generate enough shots to be able to have some go in,” Pearce said. “I think that there were some that we kind of took from maybe a little bit further out than we would have liked to, and maybe kind of because of our angle, we wouldn’t put quite as much velocity on it.”
The Bombers had a slow start offensively, struggling to find Zborowski’s and RIT defensive weak spots. IC scored just one goal in the first quarter, but found its rhythm and strongest shot, the low angle in the second. The Bombers added five to the board, including three from junior midfielder Will Kleine, the leading scorer of the night. In the second half, each team had a quarter to shine: RIT scored three and shut down IC in the third, vice versa in the fourth.
After a slower start to the season, the Bombers took down No.15 ranked St. Lawrence University 14-5 March 28. Now defeating a No.6 ranked team to extend their win streak to three, the Bombers will be in the conversation of receiving enough votes to enter the ranks themselves. Pearce said the outcome of the game was the result of believing in the process.
“We had a little bit of a rough start [but] we stayed the course,” Pearce said. “What I’m proudest of is that we didn’t get off to the start we wanted early in the season, even though we thought we were maybe a better team than we were playing early. And we just kind of never stopped believing in ourselves and kept coming to practice.”
The Bombers’ remainder of their schedule will be indicative of where they place come time for post-season. They will face Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, rivals SUNY Cortland and Vassar College the week of April 11, then will close off the regular season at home against No.15 Skidmore College on April 25.
