Ranked No. 10 in the country, the Geneseo men's lacrosse team defeated Clarkson University last Saturday, 10-7.
The Knights got off to an early 2-0 lead in the first quarter as sophomore Brendan Kurpis scored off a pass from junior Craig Lange. Lange then scored his first of four goals less than a minute later to give Geneseo the two-goal lead. Lange ended the game with six points on the four goals and two assists.
"Craig is an extremely important member of the team," said head coach Jim Lyons. "He's playing at an extremely high level. He is as good as he is because others get him the ball. He is both a product of the team and a reflection of it, too."
Both teams scored two goals in the second to enter halftime with the Knights leading 4-2. After both Clarkson and Geneseo scored a pair of goals in the third, Clarkson added a point to the board with just two seconds left in the quarter to pull within one at 6-5.
Geneseo, however, responded quickly, pulling away with three goals early in the fourth quarter through the efforts of juniors Bobby King and Kevin Centore. Lange scored the final goal of the game.
"There are always five minutes of the game that make or break it for you," Lyons said. "We made very good decisions; we were smart with the faceoff. We recognized the important five minutes would be the first five of the fourth quarter."
Geneseo held on for the rest of the quarter to come away with the win. Senior Dennis Costanza made 14 saves to pick up the win.
Lyons talked about how important it was for Geneseo to get the win after losing their previous game to RIT: "Obviously you want streaks and positive ones," he said. "You don't want to pile losing streaks, you want winning streaks."
"It was definitely good for our team to get the win," Lange said. "We were pretty sloppy at some points. It wasn't our best game, but we still got the win."
Geneseo is now 5-1 on the season. The Knights open up SUNYAC play Saturday as they host the Oswego Lakers.