The Binghamton men’s lacrosse team’s season came to a close on Saturday afternoon with a 14-8 loss to Vermont. After their elimination from contention for the America East playoffs, the Saturday after a loss to Bryant, the Bearcats were unable to overcome an 8-1 halftime deficit, eventually falling to the Catamounts.

“I don’t think we got off to a great start, obviously the score indicated that,” Binghamton head coach Kevin McKeown said. “But Vermont’s got a good team, [I] thought they moved the ball pretty well and got a lot of possessions early. And we didn’t give ourselves enough good looks at the goal early, and then I was proud of the way the guys continued to fight.”

Vermont (9-6, 5-1 AE) was red-hot out of the gate, capitalizing on a pair of Binghamton (2-11, 1-5 AE) turnovers to take an early 3-0 lead. The Bearcats continued to struggle to find a score, and the Catamounts struck once more to build their lead to 4-0. Junior attack Andrew Girolamo made an attempt on goal, which was saved by the Catamount goalkeeper. Vermont struck once more to close out the quarter as the Bearcats went into the second period trailing 5-0.

“I thought we did a little bit better job at the face offense and more defensive stops,” McKeown said. “I think those are kind of really the two main ways you get possession, and I don’t think we played enough as a defensive unit in the first half. Second half, we just played a little bit more together.”

After a Catamount attempt rattled off the post in the opening minutes of the second period, the Bearcats finally got on the board when freshman attack Liam Byrne found Girolamo for his first score of the night. However, Vermont struck back soon after, building back out to a 6-1 lead. The Catamounts continued to control play to close out the half, scoring twice more to take a commanding 8-1 lead into halftime.

Vermont continued to run up the scoreboard in the third quarter, striking first in the second half, but the Bearcats fought back with a goal from senior midfielder Will Feldmann. However, the Catamounts closed out the quarter with yet another run, scoring consecutive goals to take an 11-2 lead.

“We just played with urgency, had the ball, like I said, we were winning some face-offs there,” McKeown said. “So got the ball back, got some momentum, had a little bit of pep in our step that unfortunately we didn’t have earlier.”

After surrendering another Vermont score to open the fourth quarter, the Bearcats ended their scoring drought with a goal from Byrne. Sophomore attack Ryan Meyers added on to the run soon after to make it a 12-4 game. Binghamton continued to tally on the scores with a strike from Feldmann, but Vermont ended the run just over a minute later. The Bearcats got right back on track on the next possession, winning the face-off before junior long stick midfielder Nolan Sharkey found twine.

The Bearcats continued on the following possession, winning the face-off once more before senior midfielder Tyler Martini lit up the scoreboard. Soon after, Martini scored his second goal of the night to bring Binghamton to a 13-8 deficit, but the final score of the match came from the Catamounts as the Bearcats failed to complete the comeback, falling 14-8.

“Awesome job by [the nine graduating seniors], 10 if you include [graduate student goalie Connor] Winters,” McKeown said. “They’ve been with us through a lot of ups and downs, and it’s a great group of guys character-wise, it’s certainly a group that we will miss.”

The 14-8 loss brought the Bearcats’ 2025-2026 season to an end as they failed to qualify for the AE playoffs with a 2-11 overall and 1-5 AE record.