After an opening game that saw them take down top-ten ranked Syracuse, the Colgate Men’s Lacrosse team continued the hot start to their season at SUNY Binghamton. Last season, the Raiders made short work of the Bearcats, taking a 21-7 victory at home. This year, they hoped to maintain their momentum from one of the program’s biggest wins in the past decade.

The Raiders got off to a rocky start, finding themselves down 2-0 less than two minutes into the first quarter. The team managed to quickly right the ship though, as junior attacker Nicky Petkevich and senior attacker Sam Cleveland both scored to level the game midway through the first frame. The Bearcats were able to stop the spree with another two scores in the period, but another goal from Petkevich as well as a score from junior attacker Griffin Brown helped the Raiders draw level at the end of the first.

The Raiders came out hot in the second quarter, and behind two goals from both Cleveland and Brown, they took an 8-5 lead into the final three minutes of the half. With just seconds left on the clock, Petkevich found the net again for his third goal of the game and a 9-5 Colgate lead.

Domination on Colgate’s part continued into the third quarter with goals from sophomore attacker James Caddigan and senior midfielder Matt Donovan, stretching the Raider lead to 11-5 before Bearcats junior midfielder Joe Licata got one back for Binghamton. The Raiders’ dominance continued, though, as junior midfielder Parker Baddley, sophomore midfielder Nick Salameda and first-year attacker Brian Meniscus each scored a goal to end the quarter with the Raiders on top 14-6.

The Raiders finished out the game strong. Though Binghamton was able to rally for two early goals, another goal from Petkevich as well as a score from junior attacker Jesse Rosenblatt gave the Raiders a 16-10 win.

The win moved the Raiders to 2-0 on the season under new Head Coach Matt Karweck. Cleveland posted two assists, which brought his career total to 65, good for seventh all-time in program history, while Petkevich scored goals five through eight on the young season. He totaled nine goals the entirety of last year. The Raiders moved up to No.16 in the polls this week with the win.

The Raiders’ next game will be Tuesday, February 26, against Hobart in what will be the team’s home opener at 4 p.m. at Crown Field. Hobart’s high scoring attack has the team at 2-0 as well, and they are averaging over 20 goals per game. Last season, in a midseason battle, the Raiders lost to Hobart 12-11. Colgate will have to contain the Statesmen’s junior attacker Eric Holden, who last week scored nine goals in a game and is considered to be one of the countries most dangerous scorers.

The Raiders open up their Patriot League schedule on March 2 against Lehigh, the team that beat Colgate twice last year including ending the teams season in the Patriot League tournament.

At the moment, Colgate is one of just three Patriot League teams currently ranked, behind No.13 Army and No.1 Loyola, who the Raiders will play on March 30 in Maryland. Though the season is young, the team looks like it is in good shape to make a bid at the Patriot League crown as well as an NCAA tournament birth for the first time since 2015.

Contact Gideon Hamot at [email protected].