On a day when the Binghamton University men’s lacrosse team sought to win its eighth straight home match, it ran into a nationally ranked squad that was just too good.

The Bearcats (2-3) were stifled by No. 17 Colgate University (6-1) by a score of 17-8 at the Bearcats Sports Complex on Tuesday, bringing the home winning streak to a screeching halt at seven games. The defeat marked the worst performance of the season for the Bearcats, who have hung tough even in their losses.

“They were just really good,” Bearcats head coach Scott Nelson said. “I think they were a very good team and I don’t think we played very well. I think we had to be a little more flawless than we were. We made a lot of mistakes early on, and they’re good, and they capitalized on them.”

Binghamton got off to a poor start in the match and never seemed to recover. Colgate blasted the Bearcats by scoring the first four goals of the game. BU made it interesting by pulling within two goals in the first quarter, but Colgate then went on a scorching 7-0 run that put the Bearcats into a 12-3 hole.

Freshman goalie Colin Nesdale got the start, but was pulled by Nelson after surrendering his eighth goal early in the second quarter. He was replaced by junior Kraig Heston, who allowed nine goals.

“We were just trying to stop the bleeding a little bit,” Nelson said of the switch. “Colin’s a great goalie, but they got some great looks at the goal on him. He probably could’ve had one or two of them, and it just combined to a bad start for him, so we went to Kraig. Kraig is a good goalie, so we knew we had a good goalie going in. It wasn’t like we just did it to get Colin out of there; we did it to get Kraig in.”

One positive sign in the goalkeeping department for the Bearcats is that senior starter Jordan Marra, who has been out with an undisclosed injury, has been cleared to return to practice, according to Nelson.

The Bearcats were dominated by Colgate in the time of possession battle in the first quarter, losing 8 of the 11 faceoffs in that period and winning just 11 of 29 in the match. Binghamton was also beaten on ground balls 27-15, which allowed the Red Raiders to continually keep possession away from the Bearcats and prevent them from initiating a comeback.

“We thought we’d win a few more face-offs, get a few more possessions and they did some things very well,” Nelson said. “I give the credit to them and their coaching staff for having them ready to play. We just athletically couldn’t handle them.”

For the Bearcats, sophomore midfielder Mike Antinozzi, who has been named America East player of the week for two straight weeks, led the team with four goals. He now leads the entire America East conference in goals this season with 19 and has recorded a hat-trick in each of the team’s first five games, an all-time program best.

Junior midfielder Tyler Perrelle contributed with two goals and three assists. Antinozzi and Perrelle alone have now combined for 29 of the Bearcats’ 49 total goals this season.

But the Bearcats’ woes in the face-off circle, ground ball battle and turnover column kept them from remaining competitive from the first quarter straight through the end of the match.

“We made some mistakes, and they seemed to capitalize on everything we did wrong,” Nelson said.

Nelson and the Bearcats will look to regroup for their next nonconference match at Manhattan College, which also sports a 2-3 overall record. The game, set to be played on Saturday, marks a quick turnaround for the Bearcats, who will have just three full days of rest before taking on the Jaspers in search of getting their record back up to .500.

“I think we’ve got to shoot the ball real smart,” Nelson said of his preparation for Manhattan, “And obviously we’ve got to play better defense … We have to come out better defensively, and the offense has got to help that by getting some goals on their first few possessions, which they can do; we have the ability to do that.”

The Bearcats’ match at Manhattan is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday