ITHACA, N.Y. - The Ithaca College men's lacrosse team suffered a nail biting 13-11 lose to SUNY Cortland. Losing to Cortland drops the Bombers to an overall 10-4 record on the season while remaining 3-2 in Liberty League play. Meanwhile, Cortland improves their overall record this season to 8-6.
 
While the offense of both teams battled back and forth for the entirety of the game, Cortland's offense was superior totaling in 26 shots on goal and 44 shots in total. Ithaca trailed closely behind with 24 shots on goal and 40 shots in total. Cortland's offense was driven by Pat Doyen who scored four goals for the Red Dragons and Zak Jones who scored three. Ithaca's offense was led by Blake Eischen and Jake Erickson who put up three goals apiece. Cortland's defense came out superior with a total of 11 caused turnovers compared to Ithaca's two. 
 
Ithaca offense came out strong and opened the scoring in the ninth minute of the first quarter. The goal was put in by Blake Eischen for his 14th goal of the season. With only 1:03 left on the clock, Troy Morris put Cortland on the board for his 16^th goal of the season. Brandon Stiles was credited with the assist. Ithaca was quick to retaliate by winning the face-off which led to a huge goal scored by Jake Erickson with 1:00 left. This marked Erickson's 25^th goal of the season and put Ithaca up 2-1 to end the first quarter.  
 
Cortland came out firing in the second quarter with a goal by Stiles in the first few minutes to tie the game. However, Ithaca quickly took back the lead with Charlie Niebuhr's third goal of the season. The Red Dragons did not let up as they too responded with a goal put in the back of the net by Jones.
 
The two teams continued to battle back and forth for the remainder of the quarter. Cortland put up three more goals scored by Tyler Starrett, Doyen, and Jones while Ithaca also scored three more goals put in by Eischen, Drew Turner, and Connor Brumfield. The Bombers and the Dragons finished the half tied 6-6.
 
Ithaca opened up the third quarter with Erickson's second goal of the game. Cortland responded with a goal from Chris Dovi with 7:32 left. Ithaca furthered their lead to 9-7 at the end of the quarter with goals from John Sramac and Eischen.
 
The Dragons started the fourth quarter in an extra man opportunity because of a slashing penalty called on Ithaca's Liam Farnan. They seized this opportunity to put another goal on the board from Jones. Cortland tied up the game with a goal by Donate Yacavone and then took the lead with 9:38 left with another goal from Doyen.
 
In the last remaining minutes, Cortland's offense dominated putting up three more goals. Yacavone scored one of these while Doyen was credited for the other two. Within the last two minutes Niebuhr and Erickson scored for Ithaca in their last attempts to win the game. Despite Ithaca's last offensive push, Cortland came on top defeating the Bombers with a final score of 13-11.
 
Ithaca travels to Schenectady, N.Y. to take on No. 4 Union College for a Liberty League matchup on Saturday April 23. The game time is slated for 7 p.m.