ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's lacrosse team returned to action for the first time in nearly two weeks on Saturday at Higgins Stadium and the Bombers came away with a tight, 12-11, victory over Clarkson University. Ithaca is now 3-1 on the season and 1-0 in the Liberty League, while Clarkson drops to 2-4 overall and 0-1 in league play.

Ithaca led by as many as seven goals in the game and withstood a second-half rally from Clarkson. Despite 11 goals scored by the Knights, Connor Thornton put up a career day for IC, as he made 22 saves.

The Bombers got off to a hot start, taking a 4-2 lead after the first quarter. Connor Brumfield scored the game's opening goal at the 11:38 mark and then Clarkson tied things up less than a minute later.

IC scored the next two goals behind tallies from Willy Wright and Jake Erickson to build a 3-1 edge. Wright found the net off an assist from Erickson with 7:25 to go and then Erickson was on the receiving end of a pass from Kyle Savery at 4:59.

Clarkson closed to within a goal with 3:11 left in the quarter, but Brumfield distributed an assist from Erickson past the Knights' goalie in the waning seconds for the 4-2 count.

In the second quarter, IC ran off three straight scores from John Sramac, Drew Turner and Blake Eischen to establish a 7-2 advantage midway through the period. Clarkson ended the run with 2:51 remaining in the half to send the game to a 7-3 score at intermission.

The Bombers came out firing in the third quarter and scored three times in six minutes to go ahead, 10-3. Erickson and Sramac, along with Connor Till tallied goals during that stretch. The Knights would answer with three straight of their own by the 2:13 mark to come back to within a 10-6 score. IC and Clarkson traded goals to close out the third period, as Brumfield secured his hat trick.

The Knights' goal with 45 seconds remaining in the third kick-started a four-goal run into the fourth quarter and Clarkson came back to within a score at 11-10 with just over 10 minutes to play.

Neither team could find the back of the net for the next eight minutes until Brumfield received an Erickson pass and beat Clarkson's goalie with a behind-the-back rip with 2:55 left, giving the Bombers a two-goal edge at 12-10.

Clarkson scored the final goal of the contest with nine seconds to go to put pressure on the ensuing faceoff. Clarkson won that faceoff but didn't have enough time to score.

Demetri Lowry had five groundballs and five cause turnovers for IC, while Connor Caiazza had seven groundballs.

Ithaca heads to No. 1 RIT next Wednesday, April 14 for a 4 p.m. matchup.