EASTON, Pa. – After a first period where little went right for the Lafayette men's lacrosse team on Saturday afternoon, the Leopards fought to win the next three frames and ultimately slip away with a 13-12 victory over Binghamton at Fisher Stadium in the final non-conference contest before Patriot League play.

The Leopards trailed 7-3 after the opening frame, were outshot 19-4 and converted just one of their five clear attempts. But everything changed from that point forward as Lafayette scored 10 of the game's final 15 goals and held a 31-18 edge in shots during that span to prove its resilience and move to 4-1 in 2019, the highest win total for the Maroon and White since 2015 and the best start since 2009.

Senior co-captain Conor Walters orchestrated the Leopards' offense in excellent fashion, registering a game-high seven points on five assists and a pair of goals. Sophomore Andrew Robbins was the game's leading scorer with four tallies, while senior Connar Dehnert and sophomore Bryan Hess each chipped in with multi-goal performances.

Defensively, freshman Stephen Sajer had one of the best games of his rookie campaign with three caused turnovers and three ground balls. Senior Jeff Sikorsky and junior Chris Adamo added a team-high four ground balls for Lafayette.

In the cage, freshman Ryan Ness made seven of his 12 saves in the second half, including four big stops in the fourth quarter to preserve the win, his fourth of the season. On the other side, Robert Martin recorded 11 saves on his day with 13 goals allowed.
With 5:54 left in the opening half and the Lafayette deficit at five, 8-3, Walters began the comeback, slotting an unassisted tally to spark a three-goal run into the halftime break, trailing 8-6. The Bearcats answered at the start of the second half, but three more from the Maroon and White into the start of the fourth knotted the game at 9-9 with 13:56 to play.

Binghamton's Griffin Konen beat Ness at the 13:05 mark to put the visitors back on top, but a third three-goal run with a pair from Robbins over the next three minutes swung the game to Lafayette's side, leading for the first time since the seventh minute, 12-10. The Bearcats managed just two scores over the final 10 minutes as Dehnert's finish from freshman Cole Dutton at 4:56 was the winning score as the Leopards ran out the clock on a 13-12 victory.

Shots finished at 37-35 in favor of the visitors, but ground balls went Lafayette's way, 33-29. The Leopards went 13-for-28 at the X and extra-man defense was on display with the two sides going a combined 0-for-8 in man-up situations. Lafayette forced 21 Binghamton turnovers on the afternoon, including nine in a second period that allowed the Maroon and White to creep back into the game.

Lafayette heads into Patriot League play in a week's time, traveling to Army on Saturday for the conference opener in West Point, New York at 12 p.m.