By Reed Dempsey
Writer

With just two seconds remaining in Friday’s game at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium, Colgate broke a 10-10 tie to send the men’s lacrosse team its second straight league loss.

Bison attackman Chase Bailey ’13 opened the day’s scoring off a pass from Nick Gantsoudes ’12 three and a half minutes in. Just a few minutes later, the Raiders’ Peter Baum scored to tie the game at one.

For the rest of the first half, the Orange and Blue kept their defensemen fresh and limited possessions for Colgate’s nationally top-ranked offense. The Bison exploded for five straight goals before Colgate scored just before the half, cutting the lead to 6-2.

“The whole team played near perfect in the first half,” Kyle Feeney ’13 said. “The offense controlled the ball for most of it, limiting Colgate’s possessions and making it easier on the defense.”

The team struggled in the third quarter as Colgate added four goals to tie the game, three of which came in a span of just 70 seconds. The Raiders took their first lead of the day on another Baum goal early in the fourth quarter and quickly followed with a man-up goal to extend their lead to two.

“I think we were far too comfortable with our lead and we had a few too many turnovers,” said David Dickson ’15, who scored his 14th goal of the season in the second quarter. “We needed to stay poised and limit Colgate’s possessions but unfortunately we were unable to do so.”

After relinquishing their lead, the Bison fought back with goals by Todd Heritage ’14, Bailey and Peter Burke ’14, but shortly thereafter, the Raiders gained possessions and scored back-to-back goals to go up 10-9.

With 2:25 left in the game, Burke tied the game with his second straight goal. On the ensuing faceoff, the Raiders were called for an illegal cross check giving the Bison a minute of extra-man offense and a chance to regain the lead. During this time however, Colgate held the ball in its offensive zone, running down the clock in an effort to get the last shot.

With eight seconds left the Raiders got a shot off but Feeney deflected it off the pipe and out of play. Colgate got possession and with just two seconds left, Baum beat Feeney for his third goal of the game and 51st of the season.

With the loss, the Bison will enter the Patriot League tournament as the fourth seed, creating a rematch tonight against the Raiders in Hamilton, N.Y. According to Feeney and Dickson, the Orange and Blue head into this game with the knowledge that they are good enough to beat any opponent. It will just take 60 minutes of solid lacrosse to make that a reality.