BOXSCORE
TROY, N.Y. —Sophomore Jake Cotton scored two goals and added an assist, and senior Michael Walker added a pair of goals, but the nationally-ranked Ithaca College men's lacrosse team suffered its first loss of the season, 8-7 Saturday afternoon against Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Sophomore David Drozjock handed out two assists, and senior Eli Gobrecht and sophomores Kaelan Fitzpatrick and Stephen Morrell each added goals for Ithaca (2-1).

Senior Scott Sidnam made eight saves in net for the Bombers, ranked 18th in the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) Coaches' poll and 19th in the LaxMagazine.com preseason poll.

Gobrecht, Ithaca's All-American defender, caused three turnovers while Fitzpatrick caused two turnovers against the Engineers (1-1).

Ithaca enjoyed leads of 2-0, 4-1, and 6-3 heading into halftime, but a suffocating RPI defense limited the Bombers to one goal over the final 30 minutes, including a scoreless third quarter.

Walker and Morrell each scored goals early in the first quarter, with Morrell's coming in a man-up situation off a feed from Cotton, as IC led 2-0 4:54 into the contest.

RPI sliced the lead in half less than a minute later, but Walker scored off a feed from Drozjock with 8:36 remaining in the opening stanza as the Bombers took a 3-1 lead into the second.

Ithaca held RPI scoreless for a stretch of 15:23 spanning the first and second quarters. Cotton extended the lead to 4-1 with 11:42 remaining in the second, but RPI scored back-to-back goals to claw within 4-3.

Fitzpatrick's tally with 6:06 remaining before halftime pushed the lead to 5-3, and Drozjock set up Cotton for a goal with 2:18 remaining for a 6-3 Bomber lead.

IC took a 6-4 edge into halftime, but the Engineers scored three unanswered goals to take a 7-6 lead with 4:05 remaining in the third.

The Bombers responded with the tying goal as freshman Josh Della Puca found Gobrecht for a goal with 11:33 remaining, and neither team scored again until Breanainn McNeally's game-winning man-up goal with 5:26 remaining.

Sophomore Steven Landspurg won 75 percent of his faceoffs (8 of 12) for Ithaca, which won 9 of 17 faceoffs on the day.

The Bombers welcome Oswego State to Higgins Stadium for a 4 p.m. non-conference clash Wednesday afternoon.