Championship Info

WEST POINT, N.Y. – Colgate didn't quite get the Friday night trifecta it needed, but the Raiders did their part and picked up a pretty nice consolation prize.

A Patriot League regular season championship.

Colgate climbed into a first-place tie with Navy thanks to a stifling 8-5 victory over 17th-ranked Army here at historic Michie Stadium. It's the third regular season crown in Raider Men's Lacrosse history and second in the last four years.

The Raiders become the No. 2 seed in next week's Patriot League tournament by virtue of the head-to-head tiebreaker against the Midshipmen. But it's quite the plumb draw as Colgate sits out Tuesday's quarterfinal round and can concentrate on Friday's semifinals.
 
Ryan Walsh scored four goals and assisted on two of the three goals scored by Cameron Williams. Matt Clarkson added the eighth tally as Colgate won its fourth straight game. The Raiders jumped to 8-4 overall and completed their Patriot League season at 6-2.
 

The Raiders led 4-0 at intermission before Army battled back in the second half, closing to within two goals twice. The Black Knights were held to a season-low five goals – three by Connor Cook and two by Shea Mullins.
 
Colgate plays the second game Friday (7:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network) at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis. The Raiders will learn their opponent after Tuesday's Patriot League tournament quarterfinal games. Army plays Tuesday at Loyola in the 4-5 matchup, while Bucknell hosts Lehigh in the 3-6 game.
 
Bottom Line
• Colgate 8, Army 5
 
Won-Lost Records
• Colgate won its fourth straight game. The Raiders improved 8-4 overall and finished 6-2 in the Patriot League, tying for first place.
• Army dropped to 8-5 and 4-4.
 
Down to the Wire
• If Friday night's play had ended at halftime, or even well into the fourth quarter, Colgate would have claimed the No. 1 seed. That's how close the Patriot League race was going into this final night.
• The Raiders needed to defeat Army, have Loyola win at Bucknell and have Holy Cross win at Boston University. All three of those ingredients were in the mix as Holy Cross claimed a 12-10 victory and Loyola was leading late.
• But Bucknell rallied from a 7-4 deficit to force overtime and then defeated Loyola 10-9. That loss dropped Loyola to 5-3 in the Patriot League and kept the top spot a two-way race, which Navy won via the tiebreaker.
• Because Boston University lost, Lehigh picked off the sixth and final tournament spot when it rallied past Lafayette 11-10.

• This year's co-regular season champions, Colgate and Navy, were picked to finish fifth and sixth, respectively, in the coaches preseason poll.
 
Facts & Figures
• Ryan Walsh and Cameron Williams combined for seven goals and nine points. Walsh went for four goals and two assists, while Williams posted his second hat trick of the season.
• Walsh scored his four goals on just five total shots, while Williams scored his three on just four shots.
• Both Walsh assists set up goals by Williams.
• Williams has scored at least one goal in every game this season, the only Raider with that distinction. Anthony Abbadessa's goal- and point-scoring streak came to an end when he just missed scoring in the closing minutes.
• The Walsh hat trick was his third of the year and 22nd of his career. He matched season highs of four goals and six points set in the February win over Lafayette.
• Walsh leads the team with 22 goals and is second with 34 points. The senior captain finished as the team leader in Patriot League games with 19 goals and 29 points.
• Matt Clarkson scored Colgate's eighth goal from an impossible angle. He fought off his defender, stayed out of the crease and still managed to get it past Army's Sam Somers.
• The goal was Clarkson's 12th of the year and team-leading 35th point.
• Jack Stebbins pitched in with an assist of Walsh's first goal that opened the scoring.
 
More Key Info
• John Baker had a nice return to the Colgate lineup.
• The junior defenseman missed the last two games because of injury, but he tied for team honors Friday night with five ground balls and two caused turnovers.
• Matt Yeager didn't make the stat sheet, but he and the Raider defense kept Preseason Patriot League Player of the Year John Glesener to just two assists and zero goals. Glesener came into the night with 25 goals.

• Brandon Burke made nine saves and picked up five ground balls, while Connor Murphy kept his streak alive of grabbing no fewer than two ground balls in every game this season. He had two.
• Shots favored Army 31-25, thanks mainly to its 12-4 edge in the third quarter. But the Raiders survived that onslaught by allowing the Black Knights only a 2-1 goal-scoring edge for that period.
• Army finished with a 23-22 edge in ground balls, but the Black Knights committed 18 turnovers to Colgate's 10.
• Colgate finished 18-of-20 on clears to Army's 15-of-15.
• Faceoffs went Army's way by an 11-6 count. For Colgate, Peter Marchetto was 4-of-10, Collin Orr 2-of-6 and Strecker Backe 0-of-1.
• The Raiders were 2-of-3 on man-up opportunities to improve their season mark to 21-of-36, or 58.3 percent. That figure leads the Patriot League and ranks in the top-five nationally.
• Army had three extra-man opportunities and scored once. Colgate for the season has stopped 24-of-33 opponent man-up chances, or 72.7 percent. That figure also leads the Patriot League and ranks in the top 10 nationally.
• The Raiders improved to 3-1 against ranked teams.
 
Turning Point
• Colgate blanked Army for the game's first 34 minutes and 15 seconds, driving to a 4-0 lead.
• But the Black Knights scored two goals in a 35-second span to slice Colgate's lead in half.
• That's when Walsh came through with his third goal of the game, unassisted, with 2:25 left in the third quarter.
• The goal stemmed the Army rally and kept the Black Knights from drawing any closer than two goals the rest of the game.
 
From the Sources
• Colgate head coach Mike Murphy: (On the defense in tonight's game) "They were great. Credit Coach Toomy for watching a lot of film of them. We thought our zone could give them some trouble, and it did early on. It forced them into some bad shots, and Brandon was outstanding.
"I was really nervous about the faceoff game, but our faceoff unit did a really good job limiting any sort of runs. Watching their film, they've been able to have long possessions with multiple goal-scoring chances.
"We are very familiar with Dan Graber, Robert Graber's little brother, I'm really proud of the whole group."
(On turning around from 4-4 to win the last four games) "The players turned it around. Even during the losing streak, you can go back and it's a play here and a play there. But I'm just so proud of our team. They continue to grind it out and they come with a great intensity at practice every single day.
"I can't be more proud of this group of guys."
(On Ryan Walsh) "The TV crew asked him about not scoring as many goals this year, and he gave those guys something to talk about tonight registering the four goals.
"And I was really proud of our seniors. Even though we played zone, Matt Yeager's key matchup was John Glesener (zero goals, two assists). Matt Clarkson scored a big goal there at the end to get us to eight and a little bit of a cushion. Matt did his job and he shot the scouting report. He found an area and he scored.
"Parker Weinstock, Matt Reyes-Guerra-Dunn – this was a game the seniors put on their back and they did a great job."
(On winning a Patriot League regular season crown and earning a No. 2 seed) "The week off is the thing I'm happiest about. We can lick our wounds a little bit with a couple of days off and get back at it Monday. We'll find who we play after Tuesday."
• Colgate attackman Ryan Walsh: (On his game) "Today, I went behind the cage and back to my old spot and the team needed me to step up. Luckily, I was able to capitalize on a bunch of goals. The offense has been clicking. Today was just my day to contribute."
(On the No. 2 seed) "We have a lot of guys banged up, so we needed that full week. We didn't need to be playing Tuesday. We're going to enjoy the week off and whoever they put in front of us, we'll be ready."
• Colgate midfielder Cameron Williams: (On his game) "The offense was working well and we had smart possessions; we knew we needed to do that. Army plays very deliberate on offense with long possessions, so we knew we needed to give the defense a break. We kept pounding the rock and it worked for us."
(On making shots count) "We knew we had to take care of the ball and possession was king, all night. We were smart and it worked for us at the end of some good possessions.
"We've got some big games ahead of us and hopefully we can keep it going. The offense has been great all year. My linemates have been killing it for me."
• Colgate defenseman Matt Yeager: (On the defensive effort) "We're working well as a unit. Coach Toomy, Coach Murphy and the staff got us ready for this game defensively. They put in the game plan and it worked. With the zone, we held some of their best players to zero points and Burke was unbelievable in the cage.
"If we do our job, we protect him and he gets the job done. We're working well as a unit and playing more for each other."
 
Gate Grab Bag
• Attendance on a beautiful evening at historic Michie Stadium was 1,749.
 
Up Next
• Colgate plays next Friday night (7:30 p.m., CBS Sports Network) in the second Patriot League tournament semifinal game at Navy-Marine Corps Memorial Stadium in Annapolis.