When most people think of the number five they remember the Jackson 5, Kevin Garnett, Joe DiMaggio and the U.S. dollar with Abraham Lincoln’s portrait.
For the Binghamton University men’s lacrosse team, however, the only thing No. 5 represents is the current losing streak, which was extended by the Bearcats’ 9-7 non-conference loss to the Colgate Red Raiders (6-5) Tuesday at the Bearcats Sports Complex.
The fifth-place Bearcats (2-5, 0-2 America East) fell short after rallying hard in the fourth quarter.
The Raiders had their lead extended five points with 6 minutes, 36 seconds remaining until the end of the match. Just when any chance of a comeback seemed to have gone awry, Binghamton finally found its center and placed in three straight shots in the last five minutes. Rally, although effective, came in too late to catch up with Colgate.
“We played hard and aggressive for 60 minutes … and had a couple of good runs, but they had more shots on us,” said BU head coach Ed Stephenson. “In the fourth we let them get out to an early lead and we tried our best to even up the score.”
Both teams came out even in the first quarter with a goal each from Red Raiders senior Chris Mulholland and Bearcat sophomore Steve Carlson, but Colgate took off in the second half with four goals in a 1:23 span.
“They kind of capitalized on a couple of procedural calls we had on the faceoff,” Stephenson said. “They got a couple breaks off the faceoff and got into a quick lead on us.”
Binghamton tried to fight back as sophomore midfield Andy Cook put in two shots and ended the half 6-3. Chris Welch and Stephen Smith had respective assists.
Following a scoreless third quarter, Colgate was back on its grind in the fourth after junior midfield Kevin Joy narrowed the gap to two. The Red Raiders pillaged three goals from Bearcats turf to widen the gap 9-4 with 6:36 remaining in regulation.
“We obviously didn’t want the easy goals to get away,” Stephenson said. “When we let them get the lead in the fourth, I think it was just a mental breakdown … and bad transitions at the faceoff … because I thought we played a great six-on-six defense.”
It looked like all was lost, but the Bearcats went on a blitz of their own in the last five minutes with a goal apiece from sophomore midfielder Drew Wichmann, Carlson and Cook to bring the score to 9-7.
“Our offense really stepped it up,” Stephenson said. “We were not going to go down without a fight.”
With a little over a minute remaining in the half, Colgate once again had possession of the ball and ran out the shot clock to secure the win.
Cook notched his first career hat trick and added one assist, while Carlson had two shots and one assist.
Colgate junior attack Kevin Colleluori had a match-high three shots and two assists, while sophomore goaltender Tim Harrington had a total of 10 saves.
Tuesday marked Binghamton’s last non-conference match of the season. They have just three AE matches remaining before the conference tournament is scheduled to begin on May 1.
“We really are just taking it one step at a time,” Stephenson said. “We have to step it up on all grounds and give it our best.”
The Bearcats will trek up to Vermont to face the Catamounts on Saturday at 1 p.m.