The Binghamton men’s lacrosse team opened its 2026 season on Tuesday night at Lafayette, falling one point short in a 10-9 game where the pressure was on until the final minute. While the Bearcats pushed to keep a close game and even pulled a short lead, in the end, Lafayette took the win.

“I think we just came out with good energy,” said Binghamton head coach Kevin McKeown. “Guys were dodging hard and did a good job kind of canning some of those early opportunities. We got a couple of face-offs. I think we went three or four facing off in that quarter, so that always helps you when you have a little more possessions.”

Binghamton (0-1) struck first as junior midfielder Andrew Girolamo opened the scoring, firing in the first goal of the night to give the Bearcats a 1-0 lead. Soon after, junior attack Drew Filanowski followed, pushing the lead to 2-0. Binghamton controlled much of the first quarter, holding Lafayette (1-1) to just one goal and carrying a 2-1 advantage into the second.

The second quarter, however, belonged to Lafayette. The Leopards rattled off three goals in the first three minutes of the period to take a 4-2 lead. Immediately responding for the Bearcats was Girolamo, who scored his second goal of the night on the ensuing possession. However, the Leopards closed out the quarter with a pair of scores, entering halftime with a 6-3 lead.

The third quarter opened with seven scoreless minutes before Lafayette extended its lead to 7-3. After a strong defensive stretch, Binghamton clawed back into the match with a goal apiece from senior midfielders Colin DeLay and Gavin Jacobsen, the latter coming on a man-up opportunity assisted by freshman midfielder Nico Spaziani.

Graduate student goalie Connor Winters collected the ball, pulling a spin around Lafayette’s defense before launching a shot downfield into the net, cutting the deficit to 6-7 with under a minute remaining in the third. Filanowski then delivered the tie-up, scoring with only three seconds left in the quarter to knot the game at 7-7 heading into the fourth.

“We just started playing with a little more energy, a little bit more toughness on ground ball play,” McKeown said. “In a timeout at some point, we told the guys we needed a little bit of a spark and it was great to see the guys respond and ultimately tie it up down the line.”

After the Bearcats closed the third period with four consecutive scores, the final quarter proved a back-and-forth battle. Lafayette struck first, but Girolamo answered with over nine minutes remaining to tie the game at 8-8. Lafayette responded with two quick goals just 23 seconds apart to take a 10-8 lead.

Girolamo was not finished, though. On a man-up opportunity, he buried his fourth goal of the night to bring Binghamton within one at 10-9. The four-goal performance tied his career high and was the most goals by a Bearcat in a season opener since 2023. Despite following up Girolamo’s strike with four unanswered shot attempts, none of them found twine and the Bearcats fell to the Leopards.

“We had a handful of plays that teams that win a lot of games at this level didn’t make,” McKeown said. “Just some offsides and some plays where the ball ended up going their way and it didn’t end up going ours. The possession battle is huge in a game like this, and I felt like they were able to tilt it a little bit in the last 10 minutes of the game in their favor.”

Binghamton will look for its first win on Saturday, Feb. 14 at its home opener against St. Bonaventure University. Face-off is scheduled at noon in the Bearcats Sports Complex in Vestal, New York.