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HAMILTON, N.Y. (4/29/12) - The No. 10/11 Colgate men's lacrosse team set a total of 11 Patriot League records and tied four on Sunday afternoon in its 16-14 setback to No. 8/9 Lehigh in the Patriot League Championship game at Andy Kerr Stadium.
 
Despite a late surge in the final minutes of the game, the Raiders could not make up the four-goal deficit from the first quarter.
 
Colgate (12-3, 5-1 PL) was led by junior Peter Baum who had nine points from three goals and six assists to improve his total to 86 points this season, which is a new school record. He was followed by senior co-captain Jeff Ledwick and freshman Ryan Walsh who recorded five points each. Ledwick had a game-high five goals while Walsh added two goals and three helpers to the Raiders total. Sophomore Brendon McCann tallied three points from a pair of goals and an assist while junior Robert Grabher collected eight groundballs and two points from a goal and an assist. Junior Ryan Collins also added a man-up goal in the second quarter. Grabher now holds the school record for faceoffs won in a season (202) and is tied for first in program history with 119 groundballs this season.
 
As a team, the Raiders broke six tournament records including most team assists in a tournament (17), most points in a game (25) and in a tournament (45), most shots in a tournament (84), most man-up goals in a tournament (five), and fastest back-to-goals (five seconds). The team also tied the tournament single-game team points record with 25. Individually, Colgate also added five new marks and tied three. Baum added three, setting the league single-season point record with 86 points and broke two tournament records with six assists in a game and 18 points in the two games. The attackman also tied the tournament record for eight goals in the two games and matched the record he set on Friday with nine points in the game. Ledwick matched the league tournament record with five goals in a tournament game while Grabher set two league records for faceoffs won in a season (202) and groundballs collected in a season (119).
 
Lehigh (14-2, 5-1 PL) jumped out to an early lead, winning the faceoff and scoring on its second shot of the game to take a 1-0 lead at the 12:43 mark. Colgate which was struggling to get the ball out of its defensive end, was finally able to end its shooting drought with its first shot of the game at the 9:39 mark. The slow offense proved to be an indicator for the rest of the period with the Raiders only taking seven shots in the first 15 minutes while Lehigh tallied three more goals in the final five minutes to put the score at 4-0 going into the second period. This was the first time this season that Colgate was held scoreless in the opening quarter.
 
The Mountain Hawks carried their attacking momentum into the second 15 minutes of play, opening scoring once again less than a minute into play to increase their lead to 5-0. It was not until the 12:30 mark that the Raiders were able to get on the scoreboard to reduce the scoring margin to four goals once again. Baum passed the ball over to Ledwick from behind the goal and the senior fired it into back of the net. The goal gave Colgate the spark it needed, allowing the Raiders to tally back-to-back goals within 30 seconds from their first tally to put the score at 5-3 at the 12-minute mark. The first goal was off a pass from Baum that went over the defense to Collins who caught it at the top of the crease and then slipped it past the goalie to score the team's first man-up goal. Grabher then followed that up with Colgate's third goal five seconds later, winning the faceoff and then powering down the middle of the field to tally the Raiders' third goal. The five-second gap between Collins' and Grabher's goals set a league record for back-to-back goals in a tournament game. The Raiders then went on to score twice more in the period first with an unassisted goal from Ledwick at the 7:52 mark and then with a man-up tally from Walsh assisted by Baum at the 5:23 mark. However, it was not enough to break the Mountain Hawks' lead with Lehigh finding four more goals to put the score at 9-5 going into half time.
 
The third period saw the most scoring action with a total of 11 goals. Colgate came out to a strong start, with Grabher winning his ninth faceoff of the game, which set a new school record for faceoffs won in a season with 194. The aggressive start led to the Raiders finding a sixth tally when Ledwick picked up a pass from Baum and beat the goalie to reduce the scoring margin to three goals. Lehigh then answered back with a goal at the 12:05 mark but it was not enough to topple Colgate, which added a seventh goal 29 seconds later when McCann jumped into the air and batted in a pass from Walsh. The Mountain Hawks then stepped up their game, extending their lead to four goals once again with a pair of goals in the next four minutes. Feeling the deficit, the Raiders struck back with four goals to Lehigh's one to put the game within two with 1:15 left in the third period. Baum scored the first goal off a quick pass from Walsh, who also assisted on the second tally that was scored by Ledwick. Baum and Ledwick also scored the third and fourth goals respectively with assists from Grabher and McCann. Feeling their lead slip away, the Mountain Hawks responded with a late tally with 11 seconds left in the quarter to increase their lead to 14-11 going into the final period. This is only the second game this season that the Raiders have trailed in the third quarter.
 
Lehigh started the final 15 minutes of play with back-to-back goals in the 11th minute to give itself a five-goal lead with the score at 16-11. Both teams continued to battle it out on the field as the Raiders searched for a goal that would hopefully spark a final surge to force the game into overtime. Colgate came close to achieving this mission, taking advantage of some failed clears and turnovers by Lehigh to then tally two goals in the final 80 seconds of play, but it was not enough. The Mountain Hawks were able to win the final possession and drain the clock to secure their first PL Tournament Title and first PL post-season win, 16-14. The win also marks the Mountain Hawks' first visit to the NCAA Tournament.
 
Senior Jared Madison and sophomore Conor Murphy both saw time in net for the Raiders. Madison had four saves in 49 minutes of play while Murphy had one stop in 11 minutes. Patriot League Goalkeeper of the Year, freshman Matt Poillon, had 14 saves for Lehigh. Colgate went 3-for-5 on its extra-man opportunities while holding a slight 17-33 advantage at the faceoff X courtesy of Grabher. The Mountain Hawks capitalized on two of their three man-up opportunities.
 
The Raiders had three players named to the 2012 Patriot League All-Tournament Team with Baum, Ledwick and sophomore Bobby Lawrence.
 
The Raiders will conclude their regular season next weekend when they host No. 7/9 Maryland on Saturday, May 5 at 1 p.m. The game will be televised on Time Warner Cable Sports.