ITHACA, N.Y. - Junior Owen Putman scored five goals with an assist and sophomore Brian Doughty made 15 saves to lead the No. 15 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's lacrosse team to a 13-11 victory at No. 19 Ithaca College in the first Liberty League contest of the season for the Engineers. RPI improves to 7-1 overall, while the Bombers drop to 4-2 and 1-1.

Rensselaer struck quickly with the first two goals of the game with Putman setting up Will Killeen at 13:42 before Putman found the back of the cage 1:10 later. Ithaca got one back at 8:46, but Lucas Bastarache extended RPI's lead off a Quinn Fettig assist with 5:44 left in the first quarter. Josh Della Puca scored for the home team with 1:08, but Engineers' freshman Cooper Urban would not be outdone as he scored with only a second left in the frame.

The two teams traded the next two goals before the Bombers rattled off three straight to tie the game at 6-6. Della Puca's second of the game knotted the score with 2:56 to play in the half, but Tyler Hancock won the ensuing faceoff and scored his first of the season just 14 seconds later. 

Rensselaer led on the scoreboard (7-6), in ground balls (21-16) and on faceoffs (10 for 15) in the first half, while Ithaca had a 21-16 edge in shots. Doughty had six first half saves and Connor Thornton had four on the other end.

The third quarter saw RPI double-up Ithaca in scoring, 6-3, for a 13-9 lead. Putman started the scoring only 17 seconds in off an assist from Hancock, who won the faceoff. The Bombers got the next two goals to tie the score at 8-8, but consecutive tallies by Urban (4:44), Putman (3:44) and Urban (3:31) made it a three-goal advantage for the Engineers. Dan Lee countered at 2:46, but another goal off a faceoff by Hancock (2:37) and Putman's fifth of the game and 24th of the season a minute later put RPI ahead by four goals.

Lee scored the only two goals of the fourth quarter as Doughty stopped seven shots in the frame and 15 overall. Putman added seven shots (6 on goal) and four ground balls, while Hancock had two goals, an assist and a game-high eight ground balls. He won 17 of 28 faceoffs. JT Kelly finished with three assists.

Lee had four goals and an assist and Ryan Ozsvath scored four times in the loss. Thornton had 10 saves for the Bombers, who had a 41-32 edge in shots and a 39-36 advantage in ground balls.

Rensselaer is back at home on Wednesday when it faces Bard College in a conference game (7pm). Ithaca plays No. 20 St. Lawrence University on Wednesday (4pm).