Fort Lauderdale, FL – Eight goals in the first quarter by Cortland put the Clarkson University Men's Lacrosse team in a hole from which it could not climb out as the Golden Knights dropped a 22-11 decision to Cortland State on Tuesday afternoon at Nova Southeastern University in Florida.

The Golden Knights fell to 4-2 on the season while the Red Dragons improved to 4-2 on the year. Clarkson will look to get back on track on Thursday when the team takes on Babson College at 1:00 pm at Nova Southeastern University.

The game began about 15 minutes early due to rain and the threat of future lightning in the area, but Clarkson came out ill prepared for the offensive onslaught of the Red Dragons. Cortland scored eight times on nine shots on goal in the first quarter, including five goals in the first five minutes of the game. Clarkson finally broke through at the 9:07 mark when Conor Bartlett found Tanner Cioffi, but the Red Dragons still finished the quarter up 8-2.

The second period was an entirely different story, as the Knights' defense began to find their footing and the offense started to convert with more frequency. Sophomore goalkeeper Kevin Dyckman stopped eight shots in the quarter while allowing just a single goal, providing the Knights time to chip away at the deficit. Cioffii scored a man-up goal at 10:19 and Shane Kilday recorded assists on goals by Billy Bergan and Marcus Lavarnway in the final five minutes of the frame to help Clarkson pull to within three at the half, 9-6.

Clarkson won the battle of faceoffs in the first half (12-5), but the team committed 13 turnovers against four by the Red Dragons while Cortland held a 22-18 edge in shots (18-11 shots on goal).

Although the Knights pulled to within two at the start of the quarter on a goal from freshman Bryan Penney, the Red Dragons quickly regrouped to regain a more solid advantage. Terrence Hagerty picked up a groundball on the ensuing faceoff following Penney's goal and immediately scored for Cortland, starting a 3-0 run over the course of two minutes. The barrage didn't stop after that run, as the Red Dragons picked up four more goals in a window of less than 90 seconds midway through the period to extend the margin to nine goals (16-7). Cortland went ahead by double figures before Clarkson finally ended the run of nine straight when Peter Herrick tallied at the 4:00 mark of the third quarter. Penney added his second goal of the game 43 seconds later to reduce the lead to single digits. When Tanner Cioffi scored a man-up goal late in the third, each team had scored four goals with an extra player.

Scoring quieted down in the fourth quarter, but Cortland still managed to tally once again near the end of the game for its 22nd goal, the most that the Golden Knights have allowed in a game since 1998 (Rensselaer).

Cioffi finished with a team-best four points on three goals and one assist to lead the Knights offense, while Evan Burgett and Bryan Penney each scored two goals to go along with four groundballs apiece. Riley Holzman scooped up 11 groundballs, and Kevin Dyckman had 12 saves in the Clarkson crease.

For Cortland, Terrence Hagerty scored four goals, but it was Dean Riley who led the way with eight points on three goals and five assists. Brian Williams picked up 10 groundballs and Jon Vargas made eight saves for the Red Dragons.