Box Score

EASTON, Pa. - The Lafayette men's lacrosse team showed resiliency early in the second half, cutting what was once a seven-goal lead down to three midway through the third quarter against Colgate on Friday evening at Fisher Stadium. However, that proved to be as close as the Leopards would get, falling in their final game of the 2016 season by a 14-9 score.

"I think we started slow and it was hard for us to come back from that," head coach Jim Rogalski said. "We made some halftime adjustments and handled that the right way, making it a game in the second half, but we ultimately just made too many mistakes to win tonight."

The game was the last for eight Leopard seniors, who were honored prior to the game with a senior night ceremony. Among the honorees were Giovanni Girardi, co-captain Mac Gallagher, co-captain Morgan Westby, Michael Marchetta, Ben Falcone, Adam Broeckaert, Brody Smith and co-captain Brendan Dunlap.

The beginning of the game was all Colgate as it won the first three faceoffs and ripped off four goals in the opening 10 minutes to move out to 4-0 lead. Matt Close stopped the bleeding at the 2:48 mark of the opening quarter with an unassisted tally, but four more from the Raiders made it 8-1 with 13:15 to play in the second.

Dillon Confalone, Eric Joseph and Kevin Lewis helped the Leopards answer with three of the final five goals in the second quarter to send the game into the break down six, 10-4.

Lafayette came out in the third quarter determined to make it a game. Joseph converted on a feed from Lewis during a man-up opportunity just over a minute in, and Confalone and Close followed with unassisted markers to cut the lead to three, 10-7.

The teams traded scores to close out the final three minutes of the third, as the game went into the final period at 11-8. Colgate took over in the fourth, however, as three straight from the Raiders opened the lead back to six at 14-8 with just over six minutes to play. Lewis finished from Will McCarthy with 3:10 to go to push the final to 14-9.

Colgate led in shots, 38-25, and ground balls, 33-26. After struggling to open the game at the X, the Leopards turned it around, eventually winning 15 of the game's 26 faceoffs. Clearing proved costly for the Maroon and White, though, as Lafayette converted on just seven of their 17 chances up the field.

Freshman Jonathan Anastos had a solid game between the pipes, making 12 saves on the night and moving his record to 2-2 in his rookie year. Colgate's Brandon Burke improved to 4-9 with eight saves.

Colgate closed its year at 4-9 and 2-6 in league play, while Lafayette finishes its 2016 season at 3-11 and 0-8 in conference action.