The No. 22 Ithaca College men’s lacrosse team secured another nail-biting victory 11-10 against the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute Engineers for the first time since 2018 April 11 at Higgins Stadium. In the April 12 voting, the Bombers entered the national rankings, jumping 20 places from No. 42 previously.
The down-to-the-wire wins have become the brand of the 2026 team, which won its previous three games, and six in total, by just one goal. Higgins Stadium has become grounds for success for the Bombers, winning four out of five of their home games, including defeating two nationally ranked opponents and beating teams with long time losing streaks against. The Bombers’ win came after an instant classic victory against No. 6 Rochester Institute of Technology on April 8, just three days prior. The four game win streak bumps up the Bombers into first place in the Liberty League with a 4-1 conference record.
After RPI outscored the Bombers 3-1 in the final 14.5 minutes with the game seemingly heading into overtime, junior midfielder Ethan Adrid jogged into a zone to force the defenders to slide, and tossed the ball to junior midfielder Will Kleine. Kleine took advantage of the defensive switch, powering his way to the top center arc of the field and firing a shot right on the money 24 seconds before the final buzzer.
Although Kleine scored the winning goal, a distributed team effort led the Bombers to the victory. Senior attacker Tim Rogers, junior attacker/midfielder Lucas Proctor, Kleine and Adrid each scored two goals a piece, with three other teammates contributing one.
“It always feels good to win,” Adrid said. “After a really close game, you try not to get caught up in the emotions coming into [this game]. This is a really good team. We don’t want to boost our egos too much, get too full of ourselves. But it was a really great team win top to bottom.”
The emotions simmered high for both teams. The Engineers came prepared with elaborate sideline goal celebrations, urging many of the fans in blue to beg for a taunting call from the referees. The Bombers drew three penalties themselves, including an unnecessary roughness in the fourth quarter.
The Bombers won the ground game, picking up 33 versus RPI’s 23. The offense also created more opportunities to score, producing 41 shots. Adrid said the team had to adapt to RPI’s defense throughout the game, but pushed through.
“They like to slide from everywhere,” Adrid said. “They throw a bunch of different packages at you. I got caught on it twice and got lucky. The defense made some stops. You just have to kind of read the defense instead of expecting something.”
The Bombers will play three more regular season games before heading into the Liberty League playoff season. They will turn around quickly once again to face rival SUNY Cortland April 15 at Higgins Stadium.
