The Bison men’s lacrosse team took the field at Christy Mathewson-Memorial Stadium to face Richmond on Feb. 16, falling to the Spiders by a score of 13-11. Leading the offensive effort for the Bison were Matthew Barkauskas ’22 and Tommy Sopko ’21, each earning hat tricks. Despite the battle that ensued, the Bison were unable to overcome a strong Richmond team in their third game of the season, dropping to a 1-2 overall record.

Two minutes into the first quarter, Brendan Egan ’21 scored the first goal of the game, coming off an assist from Reed Malas ’19. Richmond responded quickly, gaining momentum and scoring the next three goals. As the first quarter winded down, Sopko added two goals to even the score prior to the start of the second quarter.

With the Spiders maintaining a 5-4 lead going into the second half, the Orange and Blue bounced back with goals from Alston Tarry ’22, Sopko, and Barkauskas.

In what proved to be a back and forth battle over three quarters, the action in the fourth determined the game. The two teams scored three goals in a matter of 27 seconds with 2:09 left in regulation. The flurry gave Richmond a two-goal advantage, a deficit the Bison would be unable to overcome.

Jarett Witzal ’19 collected a dominant 15 of 26 faceoffs and secured a team-high 11 ground balls along the way, making him the third player in program history to record 200 ground balls in his career.

Also contributing to the defensive performance was goalie Christian Klipstein ’19 who made 14 saves and created four caused turnovers. Bryant Boswell ’21 collected five ground balls, while Hunter Newman ’20 and Conor Shears ’20 collected two turnovers each.

“It is never fun to lose a game, but I think the team got a lot better against Richmond,” Sopko said. “We learned a lot about what we were capable of doing and we know what we need to do going forward to win tough games.”

The Bison will look to rebound when they face Ohio State on Feb. 23 at 12 p.m.