Colgate men’s lacrosse found success in their past two home games with consecutive wins against Canisius College and Army West Point. Colgate had a momentous win against Canisius on Saturday, March 17, beating the Golden Griffins 18-5. The Raiders continued their winning streak on Saturday, March 24, defeating Army West Point 8-6.

Colgate started the game against Canisius strongly, scoring six goals to Canisius’ one in the first quarter. The Raiders increased this gap over the course of the game, leading 9-2 at halftime, 14-3 at the end of three quarters and ending the game 18-5. Colgate’s offense controlled the game with a season-high of 55 shots and a season-low of seven turnovers. Senior Colin Orr dominated the faceoff, winning 20-of-27 draws. Additionally, the Raiders’ defense played a strong game, limiting Canisius to season-lows of only five goals on 15 shots and just 13 ground balls. There were many game highlights for the Raiders, including sophomore midfielder Griffin Brown’s career-high of seven goals on nine shots and junior midfielder Duncan Hoskinson’s four goals on nine shots. Additionally, first-year attackman Mike Hawkins, sophomore attackman Nicky Petkevich and junior midfielder Matt Donovan all scored two goals apiece for the Raiders. 

Head coach Mike Murphy commented on the success of the team in the game while still acknowledging aspects in need of improvement.

“It was a good team win. Coming off the Boston game, we needed to continue to clean some things up on offense, defense and special teams. I would like to have done a better job staying out of the penalty box. But I’m very proud of the way we came out and played. It’s been a while since we had a full week to prepare, and that’s going to be the norm moving forward. Plus, it’s always good to be 2-0 on Spring Break,” Murphy said.

The Raiders further improved their record to 6-3 overall with their win against Army this past Saturday. The Raiders struggled against Army’s top-ranked defensive unit in the first half of the game, entering the third quarter down 4-2, with goals by junior attackmen Sam Cleveland and Hawkins. The Black Knights broadened their lead to five with a goal at the beginning of the second quarter but Colgate was able to respond with three goals of their own by Hawkins, Brown, and senior midfielder Joe Delaney. Though the teams began the second half of the game tied, the Raiders managed to score three more goals by Hawkins, Brown and Hoskinson while holding off Army from scoring any. The Black Knights’ goal in the second half occurred in the last 36 seconds of the game after Colgate held them scoreless for 41 minutes and 28 seconds.

“We played better defensively. We forced them into things that we thought we would see and forced them to play a little faster than they like to play. We turned them over when we needed to and played the game we needed to play. We continue to learn how to finish, and we did a good job of finishing against Army West Point,” Murphy said.

Colgate returns to the field on Saturday, March 31 with a Patriot League game against Loyola at the Crown Field at Andy Kerr Stadium at 1 p.m. 

Contact Kendall Robinson at [email protected].