On Sunday, the Colgate men’s lacrosse team fell to the Lehigh Mountain Hawks, making their record 1-1 in the Patriot League conference and 1-3 overall this season. The Raiders lost 5-11 to the Mountain Hawks after a tough game at Andy Kerr Stadium.

In the first period, sophomore attack Lucas Spence scored the first goal for the Mountain Hawks, and Lehigh’s sophomore midfielder Andrew Pettit netted one shortly after. Early in the second period, Colgate’s sophomore attack Sam Cleveland had an assist to senior midfielder Peter Donato for the first goal for the Raiders. About three minutes later, first-year midfielder Griffin Brown scored a goal for the Raiders unassisted, making it his fifth goal of the season. The Mountain Hawks then took their lead with five unanswered goals, with senior attack Matt Raposo assisting two of them and scoring two as well. At halftime, the Mountain Hawks had the upper hand on Colgate, with a lead of 7-2.

Two minutes into the second half, junior attack Chase Wittich, assisted by junior attack Anthony Abbadessa, fired one into the net to put another one on the board for the Raiders. Spence put another two away for the Mountain Hawks, both unassisted, for a hat trick. Spence’s goals put the score at 9-3, with the Lehigh Mountain Hawks gaining a strong lead over the Raiders. A little over a minute later, Brown came back to score his second goal of the game for the Raiders, which was also his sixth goal of the season. Pettit then capped off two more for Lehigh, finalizing his hat trick and the last goal for Lehigh of the game. The Mountain Hawks were holding their lead at this point, with an 11-4 advantage over Colgate. Just before the end of the game, Colgate’s Abbadessa went for a goal unassisted to get the Raiders to five goals. Abbadessa leads the Raiders in goal scoring, with nine total goals for the season. The Raiders put pressure on the Mountain Hawks in the second half, forcing eight turnovers in the last quarter alone; however, they still were unable to catch up to the Hawks. The game ended with the Mountain Hawks maintaining an 11-5 win over the Raiders.   

The Mountain Hawks held an advantage over Colgate in ground balls, winning 30 of them, while the Raiders only retrieved 19. Lehigh also won 16 out of 20 faceoffs.

“Gaffney did a great job facing off – if you go 16-for-20, you’re going to control it fairly well. In the second half, we turned them over a little bit, which was good because it gave us some opportunities to have possession. But, again, too many turnovers, and that’s where the game is won and lost,” head coach Mike Murphy said.

The Raiders have two home games this upcoming week at Andy Kerr Stadium. On Wednesday, March 8, they will face Hobart at 4:30 p.m. On Saturday, March 18, they face off against Siena College at 2 p.m. Both games can be viewed live on the Colgate athletics website.