VICTOR, N.Y. – The Ithaca College men's lacrosse team opened up the 2025 season with a tough loss on the road against No.15 St. John Fisher on Saturday afternoon. With the win, the Cardinals improved to 2-0 as the game was played at the Pinnacle Athletic Campus, indoors.
 
St. John Fisher got off to a quick start with the first goal two minutes into the game, and the Bombers immediately responded with an Ethan Adrid goal to tie it up at 1-1. After a St. John Fisher goal, the Bombers exploded out of a timeout to grab two quick goals from Charlie Niebuhr and Kyle Proctor to take the lead. Peter Nowlan ended the quarter with another goal, finding twine to give the Bombers a 4-2 lead going into the second.
 
Ithaca continued to pile on the goals at the start of the second quarter with a lefty rip from Jack Pastore and a Tim Rogers goal to go up 6-2 on the Cardinals, with 10 minutes left in the period. St. John Fisher responded shortly after with goals to bring the Bombers lead within two. Tim Rogers scored the following goal 40 seconds after with a great inside roll, with St. John Fisher grabbing the next two. Following a time-out, Jack Giannuzzi scored the eighth goal for Ithaca as they would go up two with 1:49 remaining in the half. The Cardinals finished out the half with two quick goals to bring the score to 8-8 going into halftime, which flipped the momentum.
 
At the half, Ithaca led the stat sheet with 24 groundballs compared to St. John Fisher's 11 and 13-of-18 on faceoffs with Chris Sohl and Chase Gulick dominating in the circle. Rogers paced the IC scoring efforts with a pair of goals and Kyle Proctor dished out two assists.
 
Moving into the second half, both teams were blanked on the scoresheet for the first 10 minutes with impressive saves from both goalies, especially Ithaca's Andrew Minard. St. John Fisher finally broke the silence with 5:52 remaining in the quarter and again with a second goal with 2:28 remaining to bring their lead to 10-8 over IC.
 
In the fourth period, St. John Fisher continued their scoring run with their fifth-straight goal three minutes into the quarter. The Cardinal's goal was quickly answered by another Rogers effort for his third of the day. St. John Fisher grabbed the next goal two minutes later to put the Cardinals ahead by three with nine minutes remaining. The Proctor brothers then combined for a much-needed goal to bring the Bombers within two. Off of a timeout, graduate student Kyle Savery scored one off of an assist from Ethan Adrid. The Bombers would get one final chance with 40 seconds remaining, and a costly turnover resulted in the end of the game. St. John Fisher would go on to win 12-11.
 
Rogers led the way with a hat trick, and Kyle Proctor finished with three assists. Sohl and Gulick combined for 13 groundballs and were 21-of-27 on faceoffs. Andrew Minard made his first collegiate start and finished the game with an impressive 17 saves.
 
Up next, Ithaca will host SUNY Geneseo for its home-opener on Wednesday, February 26. Game time is slated for 4 p.m.