Troy, NY – A significant offensive run in the second quarter by Rensselaer allowed the home team to pull away from the Clarkson University Men's Lacrosse team as the 16th-ranked Engineers downed the Green and Gold 20-8 in Liberty League action Saturday afternoon.

The Golden Knights fell to 8-6 overall and 3-4 in Liberty League contests while RPI moved to 11-3 and 5-2. Clarkson closes out the regular season on Wednesday when it hosts Ithaca College.

Clarkson earned an early lead with three goals late in the first quarter as Marcus Lavarnway tied the game 1-1 at 7:27 and Pierce Currie scored a pair of goals just 65 seconds apart at 4:13 and 3:08 to put the Knights up 3-1. The Engineers scored late in the first quarter and then tied the game at the 10:38 mark in the second quarter, but Clarkson quickly regained the advantage at 10:10 on a Bryan Penney goal.

Penney's score was the last of the half for the Knights as the Engineers rolled off six straight goals in the period, with four coming from Owen Putman, including a score with just four seconds remaining in the half. The Engineers continued to rack up goals in the third quarter, putting up a six spot in the 15-minute stretch and then tacked on five more in the fourth quarter, producing a total of 17 goals over the final 40 minutes.

Jay Considine notched four groundballs and Derek Beatty added three caused turnovers and two groundballs to lead the Golden Knights. Conor Bartlett (1-1-2), Currie (2-0-2) and Lavarnway (1-1-2) each scored two points. Kevin Dyckman stopped six shots in 40 minutes and Matt Yonko made 10 saves in 20 minutes of action for Clarkson.

For RPI, Owen Putman scored six goals and Lucas Bastarache added six points on four goals and two assists. JT Kelly also produced four points with two goals and a pair of assists. Nick DeOliveira won 20 faceoffs and added nine groundballs and Keaton Ackerman added three caused turnovers and four groundballs. Brian Doughty made 10 saves in the RPI crease.