The Bison men’s lacrosse team (4-8) stormed out to a 6-1 lead in the first half and did not look back as they beat Lafayette in a historic 17-4 victory in Easton, Pa. on April 13. It was the team’s largest win since 2011. Alston Tarry ’22 also set a career high with nine total points after finishing with five goals and four assists. The win improved the Orange and Blue’s Patriot League record to 2-4, keeping their conference playoff hopes alive.

The Bison started the game by scoring three unanswered goals in the first quarter. Tarry was a main contributor and scored after being fed by Conor Shears ’20 for the opening goal of the game. Tarry then assisted the next goal from Tommy Sopko ’21. Reed Malas ’19 assisted another Tarry goal to finish the first quarter to claim a 3-0 lead.

The Bison quickly answered a Lafayette goal by scoring twice in a row with goals from Will Yorke ’20 on an assist from Ryan Durkin ’19 and another goal from Tarry.

Coming out of halftime, the Bison went on to score six straight goals in the third quarter and held Lafayette scoreless in the period. With the Bison leading 12-1 going into the fourth quarter, the game was out of reach.

The Bison had a balanced attack as Tarry accounted for five goals, Sopko added on four of his own, Grayson Burns ’20 collected three goals, and Colin O’Brien ’21 had two goals.

“We were moving the ball really well all day and kept finding the open man,” Tarry said. “My teammates did a great job of finding me and our offense was working well. Our transition game was great, as well. We had great defense that led to offense and had more than a few points coming from defenders which is great to see.”

The offense was not the only bright spot for the Bison, as the defense did not allow a goal from Lafayette for a game stretch of about 25 minutes.

“We did a good job on all ends of the field against Lafayette,” Tarry said. “We had possession from face-offs, we were great on defense and in the goal, and we scored on offense. When the defense plays as well as they played it makes it easier to score on offense. We had the ball a lot and we made the most of our chances.”

The Bison hope to add on to their stellar performance when they play at Lehigh on April 20 at 12 p.m. The Orange and Blue need to win their next two games against Lehigh and Colgate to reach the Patriot League Playoffs.