TROY, N.Y. - Owen Putman scored six goals, including five in a 7-0 stretch for the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's lacrosse team and the No. 16 Engineers defeated Clarkson University 20-8 in a Liberty League contest at East Campus Stadium. Rensselaer, which recognized 11 seniors following the contest, improve to 11-3 overall and 5-2 in the conference. The Golden Knights drop to 8-6 and 3-4.

Clarkson held a 3-2 lead after the first quarter and had a 4-3 advantage at 10:10 of the second quarter when the Engineers rattled off seven straight goals for a 10-4 lead 1:56 into the second half. Putman got things started at 9:27 of the second, which was only 43 seconds after the Golden Knights' Bryan Penney put the visitors ahead 4-3. The junior attackman then gave Rensselaer the lead at 8:49 with his second of the game, both of which were unassisted. Senior Lucas Bastarache made it 6-4 after spinning away from a defender and then bouncing a shot past the goalie with 5:15 to play in the second quarter. The midfielder then set up classmate Jacob Shavel with a man-up goal 15 seconds later. Putman scored the next three goals for a 10-4 lead early in the third quarter and now has a team-high 43 markers.

The Golden Knights broke the string two minutes later on a goal from Tanner Cioffi, but RPI's Connor Schnapp, Bastarache and Alex Ehrenstein put Rensselaer ahead 13-5 with 5:32 to play in the third quarter. Clarkson's Conor Bartlett and Rensselaer's JT Kelly traded goals 24 seconds apart just 32 seconds after Ehrenstein's goal, but the Engineers outscored the Knights 6-2 from that point. Six different players tallied for the home team, including Putman while RPI was man up.

Bastarache also had six points (4 goals, 2 assists) and Kelly, a senior, had four (2 goals, 2 assists). Freshman Cooper Urban scored twice with an assist and sophomore Will Hatcher scored once with one assist. Sophomore Nick DeOliveira won 20 of 26 faceoffs and had a game-high nine ground balls for RPI, which had a 53-26 edge in pickups. Sophomore Brian Doughty made 10 saves in the win, including three in the first, third and fourth quarters.

Clarkson, which was outshot 60-37, was led offensively by junior Pierce Currie, who scored twice. Bartlett and Marcus Lavarnway both had a goal and an assist and Jay Considine scored once with a team-high four ground balls. Kevin Dyckman and Matt Yonko shared time in the crease.

The Golden Knights conclude the regular season on Wednesday against Ithaca College, which it is battling for the fifth seed in the Liberty League Tournament. The Engineers travel to No. 19 St. Lawrence University, who they are contending for the third seed, on Wednesday. Both games begin at 4pm.