In front of an impressive home student section, the Bison men’s lacrosse team captured their first win of the season on Feb. 10 with a 9-6 victory over Bryant at Christy Mathewson Stadium. Will Yorke ’20 achieved a career high, scoring five goals to carry the Bison offense. With the game deadlocked at 3-3 at halftime, the Orange and Blue pulled away from Bryant in the second half to secure their first victory and improve their record to 1-1.

The Bison opened up scoring in the first quarter when Matthew Barkauskas ’22 notched a goal in the first minute on an assist from Matt Fedorjaka ’20. It was Barkauskas’ second straight game netting a goal after he scored against Maryland the week before. Bryant went on to tie up the game with two minutes left in the first quarter.

The Bison took a two-goal lead in a span of three minutes at the start of the second quarter. Barkauskas netted his second goal of the game on an assist from Ryan Durkin ’19. Durkin then assisted a goal by Reed Malas ’19 to give the Orange and Blue a 3-1 advantage. Despite this flurry of action for the Bison, Bryant fought back and tied the game at the conclusion of the first half.

The Bison dominated the second half of play. Yorke went on to score the Bison’s next four goals on assists from Tom Smith ’19, Fedorjaka, and Tommy Sopko ’21. Bryant attempted to close the gap after adding a goal to the scoreboard, yet once again Yorke fired one into the back of the net to make the score 8-4.

“It definitely felt good to have five goals on the day. After having been scoreless in the first half, I knew I needed to turn it up a notch in the second half,” Yorke said. “Big shout-out to my offensive and defensive middies who dodged hard, drew slides, and had a lot of poise with the ball in the second half. Ultimately, they are the reason I was either open on the crease or had enough space to get my hands free and shoot.”

In the dwindling minutes of the fourth quarter, Bryant scored two more goals, pulling the score to 8-6 in favor of the Bison. Malas scored the final goal of the game for the Bison to secure the 9-6 victory.

“I thought we played very good half-field defense,” head coach Frank Fedorjaka said. “[Christian Klipstein ’19] was great in the goal. Our offensive middies did a good job of stopping their transition which was by far the #1 key to the game. Our D-mids did a great job in transition and clearing. Our offense was much more confident and aggressive in the second half.”

The Orange and Blue will look to secure their second victory of the season when they host Richmond for the first time in program history on Feb. 16 at 2 p.m.