In their final game of regular season play, the men’s lacrosse team travelled down to West Point for a matchup against Patriot League rival, Army. This game was televised nationally on CBS Sports Network. 

The Raiders offense was nothing short of impressive immediately from the first whistle. Senior captain Ryan Walsh scored the first goal of the game midway through the first quarter on a feed from sophomore midfielder Jack Stebbins. The Colgate defense shut out the Black Knights’ offense in the first quarter due to a strong defensive effort from junior longpole John Baker and senior defender Matt Yeager. 

Colgate led 1-0 heading into the second quarter. Less than a minute into the period and playing with an extra man opportunity on offense, junior midfielder Cameron Williams recorded his first tally of the contest off a pass from Walsh. With about five minutes remaining before halftime, Walsh added his second goal of the contest. Williams also posted another goal just 10 seconds before intermission, and the Raiders led 4-0 after the first half of action.

After allowing two quick goals from Army’s Connor Cook and Shea Mullins within five minutes of the beginning of the third quarter, Walsh contributed again with his third goal of the game. This increased the Raiders lead to 5-2 at the end of the third quarter. 

The Black Knights offense narrowed the gap to 5-3 two and a half minutes into the final quarter of play. To no avail though, as Williams notched his third goal with ten minutes remaining via a pass off the stick of Walsh, bringing the score to 6-3 in favor of Colgate. Less than a minute later, the Raiders offense had their third extra man opportunity of the game. As to be expected, Walsh converted this chance for his fourth goal. 

With less than five and a half minutes remaining, senior midfielder Matt Clarkson put a goal on the board. The game was never in jeopardy for Colgate right from the start, as they won with a final score of 8-5. 

The win for the Raiders was in large part attributable to the lethal tandem of Walsh and Williams. These two players combined for seven goals and collectively nine points. In addition, sophomore goalkeeper Brandon Burke had a monster performance in net, recording nine saves and picking up five groundballs, while also shutting out the Black Knights offense for the first 34 minutes of

the game. 

Despite not making the stat sheet, the play of senior defender Matt Yeager was instrumental in the win for Colgate. Yeager completely shut down Army attacker John Glessner, a preseason Patriot League Player of the year who has 25 goals to his name thus far in the season. Yeager and the rest of the Raiders defensive forced 18 turnovers for the Army offense. 

When asked about his team’s performance, Head Coach Mike Murphy was really happy with the outcome of the game. 

“The defense was great. Credit Coach Toomy for watching a lot of film on them. We thought our zone could give them some trouble, and it did early on. It forced them into some bad shots, and Brandon was outstanding,” Coach Murphy said. 

“I was really proud of our seniors tonight … this was a game the seniors put on their back and they really did a great job … I’m happiest that we now have a week off. We can lick our wounds a little bit with a couple of days off and get back at it Monday. We’ll find who we play after Tuesday,” Murphy continued. 

Colgate finished the regular season with an 8-4 record and tied for first place in the Patriot League standings. The team will travel down to Annapolis, Maryland next Friday for the Patriot League tournament, where they hold the second seed. CBS Sports Network will broadcast their game against an opponent TBD held from Navy-Marine Corps

Memorial Stadium.