In the wide world of sports, when one looks at standings, one sees only wins and losses. There are no extra points for coming close or trying hard. But even a mark in the loss column can provide hope that things are heading in the right direction.

Enter the Binghamton University men’s lacrosse team (1-1). The Bearcats play Cornell University (1-0) annually and have never won. In the schools’ past six matches, they have lost by a whopping average of 12 goals per game. One would think that a home game for a Big Red team with the highest ranking it has ever had at the time it faced Binghamton would be a cakewalk for the home squad, but it wasn’t.

Binghamton lacrosse proved it can hang with the top dogs.

The Bearcats, who have boasted just one winning season in its Division I history, fought No. 3 Cornell right down to the wire, but came up short in a 17-12 decision. The match marked the smallest margin of victory for the Big Red since the first of the annual matchups in 2004.

“I think we have a pretty good team,” BU head coach Scott Nelson said. “I think our guys played hard, I think we went in there thinking we’re pretty good, and we showed it.”

In Nelson’s first showdown with Cornell as the new Binghamton head coach, his squad fought valiantly into the fourth period of play. The Bearcats took the lead 10-9 late in the third period, but then surrendered a 6-0 run to the Big Red that they simply could not recover from. Nelson said it was the turning point of the whole match.

“We had the ball with a minute to go [in the third period], holding it for the last shot,” he said. “We ended up turning it over, and they went down and scored to go up by a goal going into the fourth quarter. The first five minutes of the fourth quarter, we didn’t really touch the ball. They won every face-off. They got a couple goals on us, and that’s what stretched the lead out.”

But the Bearcats clawed back behind two goals from senior attack John Clark to bring the score within three. But two Cornell goals in the final three minutes sealed Binghamton’s fate.

“When it was 15-12, we were trying to double-team and then press all over, and they got a couple in the empty net,” Nelson said. “I think we had a bad stretch the last minute of the third and first five minutes of the fourth that really did us in.”

Sophomore midfielder Michael Antinozzi led the Bearcats with four goals, while junior midfielder Tyler Perrelle tallied three goals and three assists. Binghamton also showcased its newest goalkeeper, freshman Colin Nesdale, who made 12 saves in his debut. Starting goalie senior Jordan Marra went down with an injury and did not return; Nelson said that the timetable for his return is “about a week and a half.”

Nelson has led the Bearcats to two promising performances in his first two games as head coach and credited the lacrosse program for its strong reputation and for the players themselves.

“I think we have some great kids in this program,” he noted. “I’ve been very, very impressed with them. They love to play lacrosse, they’re good students, good citizens. The whole package for me has been terrific, and the way we’ve played in these first two games does not surprise me at all, knowing we have guys that play hard and push each other every day … We’ve got to keep that rolling.”

The next obstacle for the Bearcats will be Hobart and William Smith Colleges, a team which Binghamton beat 11-5 last year. It’s a quick turnaround for the Bearcats, as they will have just three days off before facing the Statesmen (0-1).

“I think this is going be a tough game,” Nelson said. “We’re going to have to make sure we rest [our players] the next couple days to prepare for them for what they do offensively and defensively. It’s such a short turnaround; we want to make sure they’re healthy, getting [ourselves] back at 100 percent to play on Saturday and just make sure we come out and play very, very hard like we have been.”

The match is set to take place at 1 p.m. Saturday on Hobart’s home turf.