The Colgate men’s lacrosse team opened their 2010 campaign on a rather disappointing note, dropping their first contest of the season to the Binghamton Bearcats 7-6 at the Bearcat Sports Complex at Binghamton University. With the win, the Bearcats won their program’s first-ever victory over the Raiders, who had defeated them in every season since 2003. However, Binghamton had played Colgate very close in the past few years, including losing 11-9 to the Raiders last year at Andy Kerr Stadium.

Binghamton opened the scoring less than 90 seconds into the game when junior midfielder Frank Donlon was able to beat Colgate sophomore goalie Jared Madison for the tally. The Raiders, however, answered with three goals of their own. Junior attackman Andrew Mould netted the first goal just over five minutes into the period. Then, first-year midfielder Peter Baum scored his first collegiate goal just over two minutes later to give the Raiders their first advantage of the contest.

“Right after I scored the goal, I wasn’t thinking that I had just scored my first career collegiate goal,” Baum said. “I was just trying to help the team out, and it seemed like our offense was about to start clicking, but once I got off the field and could think for a second it hit me. It was obviously a good feeling.”

Junior attackman Ben McCabe then scored his first goal of the season off of an assist from Mould to give the Raiders the 3-1 advantage with just over five minutes remaining in the opening period. In the second period, however, the Bearcats responded back with three more goals to give the home team a 4-3 advantage, before McCabe beat Binghamton junior goalie Don Solazzo for his second goal of the game. The two teams headed into halftime tied up at 4-4.

The Raiders controlled the tempo of play in the third quarter, however it did not translate into much offense for Colgate. Binghamton’s defense was stiff, and the Raiders were able to take advantage of poor clearing by Binghamton to piece together several possessions in a row. Unfortunately for the Raiders, they could not cash in on their attempts, while the Bearcats were able to make the most of their offensive possessions of the period, scoring two goals from first-year attackman Matt Springer. The Raiders offense seemed out of sync all game, and it showed in this period.

“I wouldn’t say we played a flat game, it was just a little hesitant,” Baum said. “We didn’t play the way we are capable of playing as a team. It was not a total team effort out there.”

Despite the fact that the Raiders could not quite get their offense in gear they still had a chance to pull the game out in the fourth quarter. The Raiders rallied to tie the game up at 6-6 as Baum scored consecutive goals for the Raiders to complete his hat trick. Binghamton, however, was able to pull out the one-goal victory when first-year midfielder Tyler Perrelle scored his first collegiate goal with eight minutes left in the period.

The game was fairly even statistically, as the Raiders held a 28-27 shot advantage, and both teams scooped up 27 ground balls. The Raiders did have a distinct advantage at the face-off, winning 12 face-offs to Binghamton’s five. Binghamton goalie Dan Solazzo recorded 12 saves on the afternoon and was the primary reason the Bearcats were able to pull off the upset against the Raiders. Madison and senior goalie Tim Harrington split time between the pipes for Colgate, recording a total of nine saves between the two of them.

The Raiders have their home opener this weekend against the Dartmouth Big Green. The game is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. on Saturday.