On Saturday afternoon, the Binghamton men’s lacrosse team fell to Bucknell in its fourth game of the season. The Bearcats were led by senior attack Kevin Winkoff and senior midfielder Andrew Arce, who each recorded a hat trick each in the 11-17 defeat.

“I thought our guys offensively did a good job for the most part, we didn’t have the ball quite enough,” said Binghamton head coach Kevin McKeown. “Man-up, I would’ve liked to see us do a little better, but against a team like that, they generated 56 shots and we generated 38. I think we were efficient for the most part with our shooting, but I don’t think we had the ball enough to get the extra two or three that we probably needed.”

The Bison (5-0) controlled the flow of the match and maintained possession of the ball. BU (1-3) tallied 25 ground balls to Bucknell’s 39 and 12 faceoffs to Bucknell’s 20. The Bearcats’ defense faced 56 shots due to the Bisons’ control throughout the match. Redshirt junior goalie Teddy Dolan saved 18 of the home team’s 35 shots on goal.

“I thought we put [Dolan] in some tougher spots with some of the transition and looks we gave up,” McKeown said. “He still stood tall with 18 saves, 56 shots [are] a lot to handle so he did a pretty good job.”

Winkoff put in the first BU goal of the game and helped his side take an early 2-1 lead. Bucknell, however, responded and pulled away with a six-goal run that began in the first quarter and was continued throughout the second frame until a goal by junior midfielder Quinn O’Hara ended the BU dry spell. The Bearcats were able to rebound from their early struggles and managed three goals in the last six minutes of the first half. With Binghamton entering the penultimate quarter down 9-5, the Bison picked up where they left off with the possession advantage in the third.

“The second quarter was a possession advantage for them and us playing a lot of defenses, with some failed clears on our part,” McKeown said. “There were maybe more of those than were shown in the stats. The faceoffs went their way too, and we gave up some in transition and that was on us in the second.”

BU opened up the second half with two straight goals and narrowed its deficit to a 9-7 game. The Bison had a response, though, and led a 5-1 run to end the period up 14-8.

“In the third quarter, we scored the first two goals, and [Bucknell] had a timeout with five minutes left where it was a 9-7 game,” McKeown said. “We were talking about winning those last five minutes, and then they came out and scored three or four goals, and we weren’t able to shut them down quick enough when they got going.”

Despite the Binghamton offense’s lack of ball control, it made efficient work of the possessions it did have, scoring 11 points on 22 shots on goal. In the fourth period, the Bearcats fell further, giving up three more goals before they responded. With 4:37 remaining, Winkoff ended BU’s scoring drought which sparked a 3-0 run in less than a minute. The effort was in vain as the Bearcats fell 17-11.

“I thought [Winkoff] had another great game with three goals,” McKeown said. “He’s been playing great for us, and [Arce] is a guy who has been hampered by injury a lot in his career and [COVID-19] as well, so as a senior he’s coming along really nicely, coming off injury.”

Binghamton will look to bounce back from Saturday’s loss when it faces Hofstra on Tuesday, March 8. Faceoff is set for 6 p.m. at the James M. Shuart Stadium in Hempstead, New York.