TROY, N.Y. - Senior Luke Murphy had four goals and an assist in the first half before finishing with five and two to lead the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's lacrosse team to a 12-9 victory over Skidmore College in a Liberty League contest at East Campus Stadium. The Engineers improve to 5-5 overall and 2-0 in the conference, while the Thoroughbreds are now 5-3 and 0-1.

With the game scoreless through the first half of the first quarter Skidmore got on the board with a goal from Charlie McFadden at the 7:22 mark. From that point, RPI rattled off six consecutive markers, including three in a 12-second span.

Tyler Ruffini tallied just 11 seconds after the Thoroughbreds took the lead and Cooper Manzi, who set up Ruffini, made it 2-1 two minutes later. Murphy, who assisted on Manzi's goal, scored six second later with Angelo Venuto earning the assist. Venuto then scored off his own face off win six second after Murphy's goal to make 4-1 with 5:00 to play in the first quarter.

An unassisted goal by Sean Smith 25 seconds into the second put the Engineers ahead 5-1 and Murphy-from-Manzi a minute later increased RPI's lead. McFadden scored at 11:09, but two more from Murphy, the first assisted by Ely Kalkstein and the second unassisted, made it 8-2 with 7:04 to go in the half.

Neither team scored again before the break and Rensselaer went into the locker room with a 29-17 advantage in shots, including 16-8 on goal, and a 22-16 lead in ground balls. Venuto had five pickups after winning 7 of 11 face offs. Joseph Perry had six saves for the Engineers and Collin Kuester notched nine on the other end.

Murphy started the second half scoring just 47 seconds into the third quarter, but David Koffler answered for the Thoroughbreds less than a minute later. The score remained 9-3 until the 6:11 mark when Jimmy Gibbons scooped up a rebound of his own shot and fired the ball past Perry from close range.

RPI defenseman Caleb Oswari finished the scoring in the frame when he took a long clearing pass from Perry and ran down the middle of the field before beating Kuester with 29 seconds remaining.

The two teams traded man-up goals to open the fourth before the visitors tallied four of the final five markers to get to within 12-9 with 4:59 to play. Tim Blue had a goal and an assist in that sequence and McFadden scored once.

A pair of 1-minute, man-up opportunities helped the Engineers hold off the Thoroughbreds.

Perry finished with 11 saves in 49:00 before giving way to Garrett Gagnon, who stopped one shot. Kuester finished with 16 saves for Skidmore, which got three goals and an assist from McFadden and a goal and an assist from two others.

In addition to Murphy's seven points, Manzi finished with three (1 goal, 2 assists) with Venuto registering two (1 goal, 1 assist), along with 14 face off wins in 23 chances and a game-high 12 ground balls.

RPI finished with a 52-36 advantage in shots (28-21 on goal) and a 43-37 edge in ground balls.