This past Saturday, the men’s lacrosse team travelled to Worcester, Massachusetts, for a Patriot League showdown versus the Holy

Cross Crusaders. 

The team’s offense came out very slow to start the game. First-year attacker and Patriot League Rookie of the Week, Anthony Abbadessa scored the lone goal in the first 15 minutes of play, and the Raiders trailed 5-1 by the end of the first quarter. 

Fortunately, the offense began to heat up as the second period of play began. Four minutes into the quarter, first-year attacker Chase Wittich and senior captain Ryan Walsh scored within 30 seconds of each other, both on assists from the stick of Abbadessa. Down 7-3 midway through the second quarter, junior Cameron Williams recorded his first goal of the contest on an extra-man opportunity pass from Wittich. Williams scored again less than a minute-and-a-half later, followed by another tally from Wittich and Walsh to end the first half. The Raiders narrowed the lead significantly in the second quarter, trailing only 8-7. 

Four minutes into the third quarter, Abbadessa scored his second goal of the game, trimming the score to 9-8 in favor of Holy Cross. Right before the end of the quarter, sophomore Kevin Lux ripped a shot past Colgate goaltender Brandon Burke, increasing the Holy Cross lead to 10-8.

The final period of action was nothing short of impressive for both the Colgate offensive and defensive units. Sophomore midfielder Peter Donato scored off a feed from senior captain Matt Clarkson just 34 seconds into the quarter. Less than a minute later, Clarkson registered a goal to tie the game at 10-10. 

The scoring went back and forth for the Crusaders and the Raiders throughout the remainder of the fourth quarter. After a Holy Cross goal, Abbadessa and Donato each added another goal to put the score in favor of Colgate, 12-11. 

Down 13-12, Abbadessa scored his fourth goal of the game on an extra man opportunity to tie with 2:10 to play. With under a minute remaining, Walsh ripped a side arm shot past the Crusaders goalie for the game winner. 

The Colgate offense played one of its best games of the season, as the team went three-of-three on extra man opportunities. Abbadessa recorded a season high six points on four goals and two assists, while Clarkson knotted five points on one goal and four helpers. The Raiders also received two goals a piece from Willams, Donato and Wittich. Walsh added three goals for the Raiders, making it his only collegiate performance against Holy Cross in which he didn’t register at least four goals.

“You have to give our guys credit. We didn’t have the ball much on offense at times, but when we did we scored some goals. And then at the end, when we needed to play defense the way we are accustomed to doing, we did,” Coach Murphy remarked regarding his team’s performance. 

“The offense definitely carried the day for us. We’ve just got to get back to playing Colgate defense. We dug ourselves a hole, but we continued to show character and poise and we fought our way back.” 

“Everybody was contributing. Our defense has had games where they were tough, so we needed to take the load off. Luckily, today it happened,” Abbadessa said. 

After their victory on Saturday, Colgate is tied for second place in the Patriot League standings with Loyola. The team will conclude their Patriot League regular season play this Friday April 17 at 7 p.m. in a game against Army at the famous Michie Stadium. This game will be televised by CBS Sports Network and will be available to watch on the Colgate Athletic website.