In white-out conditions at the Bearcats Sports Complex on Saturday, the Scott Nelson era of Binghamton University men’s lacrosse program began with a 10-8 victory over Lafayette College.
Snowstorms blew through Binghamton’s campus but did not deter the Bearcats (1-0) who led Lafayette (0-1) by a score of 3-0 after the first period.
Sophomore Michael Antinozzi scored BU’s first goal of the season with 7:34 to go in the first. The shot was followed 10 seconds later by an unassisted goal from senior Ben Waldron. Before the half ended, junior Tyler Perrelle added a goal of his own to give BU a slim lead after the first period of play.
Antinozzi added his second tally to push the Binghamton lead to 4-0 before the teams traded goals to head into halftime at 5-1.
Though Lafayette cut into that lead early in the third, Antinozzi netted his third goal of the game shortly thereafter for his first career hat trick. By the time the game entered the final period, the Bearcats held an 8-4 advantage and would stretch the lead to six at 10-4 in the fourth.
But Lafayette staged a comeback late, rattling off four consecutive goals to cut the BU lead to 10-8 with 3:12 to go. Binghamton’s defense stepped up in the final minutes to secure the opening day win, the program’s third all time in its 11-year history.
Senior goalie Jordan Marra got the nod in net for Binghamton and stopped 14-of-22 shots on goal. Last year, Marra went 8-5 and stopped 47 percent of all shots he faced, allowing an average just north of 11 goals per game.
The Bearcats are set to take on Cornell University at 4 p.m. today in Ithaca. The Big Red are a perennial lacrosse powerhouse and are currently ranked No. 7 in Division I lacrosse. The team has not won a national championship since 1977, but has made the finals as recently as 2009, before losing in overtime to National Champion Syracuse University.
Binghamton has never defeated Cornell but has knocked off ranked opponents before, triumphing over then-No. 20 Colgate University in 2010. BU took that game 7-6.