Despite a four-goal effort by senior Tom Ross (Adams, NY), the Clarkson University Men's Lacrosse team lost to Skidmore 16-10 at Saratoga Springs, NY on Saturday evening in the final game of the regular season.
The Golden Knights, who stand at 9-4 overall, close out the Liberty League campaign with a 4-2 mark, tying for second with Skidmore (9-5, 4-2) in the standings. Clarkson, which is the #3 seed in upcoming league playoffs, will meet up again with Skidmore in the opening round of postseason play when they battle the second-seeded Thoroughbreds this coming Friday in Saratoga Springs. St. Lawrence, the regular season champions will play fourth-seeded Union in the other semifinal game of the Liberty League playoffs on Friday in Canton, NY. The winners in the first round will play in the conference tournament championship game to be played on Sunday, May 3 at the highest remaining seed.
In Saturday’s regular season finale, Clarkson and Skidmore battle fairly even in a defensive-minded first 30 minutes with the Thoroughbreds holding a 4-3 lead at the half. Skidmore, however, dominated the third quarter, scoring the first four goals of the stanza and out scoring the Green and Gold 6-2 to take a 10-5 lead after 45 minutes.
The two teams combined for 11 goals in the fourth quarter with the Thoroughbreds scoring six more times to close out the contest.
Senior Greg Gibbons (Baldwinsville, NY) tallied twice for the Knights, while seniors Jon Cathcart (Homer, NY) and Brian Hoey (Auburn, NY), sophomore Tyler Long (Liverpool, NY) and freshman Bryan Huff (Hillsborough, NJ) each netted one goal.
Ben Cornell led Skidmore with a game-high five goals.
Skidmore held slight advantages in both shots (39-37) and ground balls (41-36). Freshman Chris Gavitt (Rensselaer, NY) paced Clarkson in ground balls with five and also had three caused turnovers.
Senior Jon Szvoren (Hamburg, NY) started in the Clarkson goal and recorded five saves while allowing eight goals through 39 minutes. Freshman Pat Sweeney (Canton, NY) made five stops while allowing eight goals over the final 21 minutes of play.
