This past week, the Colgate men’s lacrosse team played tough games against Boston University on March 13 and Siena College on March 19. While the Raiders fell to Boston 18-7, they were able to come back from their loss to defeat Siena 16-11.

Colgate started the game against BU strong, with sophomore midfielder Duncan Hoskinson scoring the first goal of the game only 4:16 into the first quarter. However, Boston answered with four goals of their own to end the first quarter. 

Boston widened their lead in the second quarter with five more goals to Colgate’s zero. Sophomore Duncan Hoskinson, first-years Griffin Brown and Nicky Petkevich, junior Anthony Abbadessa and senior Will Mette collectively scored six more goals for the Raiders, but it was not enough to defeat the nationally ranked Boston University. 

Despite the loss against BU, the Raiders played a great game against Siena College the following Sunday. Siena controlled the ball at the beginning of the first quarter and took a 1-0 lead with 11:03 left. Siena’s lead did not last for long, as Colgate scored the next seven goals of the game. Siena narrowed the Raider lead to 7-4 with 6:05 left in the second quarter, but Colgate responded with two more goals by sophomore attacker Sam Cleveland to end the the first half. Colgate junior attacker Chase Wittich made it 10-5 early in the third, which stood until the five-minute mark, when Siena scored three straight goals. Siena came within 12-9 of Colgate with 9:36 left in the game, but the Raiders once again widened their lead with two goals by first-year attacker Nicky Petkevich and two goals by Wittich and Cleveland to end the game with a 16-11 win. 

The were many Raider offensive highlights in the game against Siena College. Cleveland scored a career-high four goals and Wittich recorded his second hat trick of the season and fourth of his career. Additionally, Petkevich posted his first collegiate hat trick and Abbadessa contributed a career-high of five assists. Junior Collin Orr kept the Raiders on the attack by winning a career-high 22 faceoffs in 30 tries.

Colgate head coach Mike Murphy commented on the Raiders’ success in the game against Siena.

“I’m glad to get the victory. We challenged the seniors a couple of days ago that we would win this game on their backs, with 5 (Brandon Burke) in the goal, and 19 (Jackson Patterson) and 3 (Strecker Backe) underneath, and Jack Stebbins having to play some extended minutes on short-stick defense. We’re going to need that kind of effort as we move forward to Cornell and then the league as well,” Murphy said.

Murphy also remarked on the strength of Colgate’s offense in the game.

“We knew we were going to need a strong performance on offense. We needed to capitalize on opportunities, and it was good to see Collin Orr dominate at the faceoff-X,” Murphy said.

After the games against Siena College and Boston University, Colgate stands at 3-4 overall. Colgate faces off against Cornell on Tuesday, March 21 at Schoellkopf Field at 5 p.m. The team looks forward to taking on their Patriot League rival, who has overcome the Raiders in their last eleven meetings.