NEW LONDON, Conn. - Junior
Owen Putman had two goals and three assists and seven of his teammates also had multiple points as the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's lacrosse team defeated the U.S. Coast Guard Academy 12-11 in a non-league game. The Engineers improve to 2-0, while the Bears fall to 1-1.
The Bears were on the board first as Benner Geurtsen and Riley McNulty scored at 11:42 and 10:07 to take the first lead.
Cooper Urban found
Lucas Bastarache to give the Engineers their first goal at 5:49, but McNulty answered at 5:11.
JT Kelly scored his first of two goals with under a minute remaining in the quarter, though McNulty again countered, this time with five seconds remaining for a 4-2 lead for the Bears.
McNulty extended the lead to 5-2 to open the second quarter on a man-up opportunity. At 10:15 in the quarter,
Cliff Kigar scored his first for the Engineers, sparking a five-goal run as they took a 7-6 lead heading into halftime. Putman scored his first of the game at 14:00 in the third quarter to extend the Engineers lead, 8-6. The Bears answered by scoring the next three goals to hold a 9-8 advantage. At 4:45 in the third, Rensselaer's
Jason Bram scored an unassisted goal to tie the game 9-9, heading into the fourth quarter.
Matty Johnson opened the fourth quarter with his first goal of the season, giving the Bears a 10-9 advantage. However, RPI scored the next three goals, two of which were set up by senior
Will Killeen to take the lead 12-10. Will Iorio pulled the Bears within one with 1:37 remaining but the Engineers held on for the win.
Kelly (2 goals, 1 assist) and Urban (3 assists) both had three points and five others had two points apiece. McNulty had four goals and an assist for the home team.
Sophomore
Brian Doughty made two saves in the first half and freshman
Kyle Botsford made eight saves in the second. Coast Guard senior goalie Trey Johnson made 11 saves. The Bears outshot RPI 60-34 and held the edge in ground balls, 27-17.
Rensselaer returns to the field on Saturday when it welcomes MIT for a non-league game at 3pm. Coast Guard is also back in action on Saturday at McDaniel (3:30pm).
