Saratoga Springs, N.Y.-- The Skidmore College men's lacrosse team beat Clarkson University 16-10 to grab the second seed and a home playoff game in next week's Liberty League tournament.

The Thoroughbreds finish the regular season 9-5 overall and 4-2 in the Liberty League. The Golden Knights are 9-4 and 4-2. Skidmore wins the head-to-head tiebreaker and will host Clarkson on May 1 at a time to be announced. St. Lawrence is seeded first and will host fourth seed Union College. The championship game will be played May 3 at the highest remaining seed.

It was a defensive battle for the first half, with the Thoroughbreds holding a 4-3 lead after two quarters. Skidmore's offense came alive with four straight goals to open the third quarter to make it 8-3. Tom Levesque (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury) scored the first two goals and Nick Coppola (Basking Ridge, N.J./Ridge) and Ben Cornell (Natick, Mass./Middlesex) each scored.

Bryan Huff (Hillsborough, N.J.) got one back for Clarkson with 4:59 to play in the third to cut the lead to four, 8-4. Cornell and Cory Barkoff (Woodbury, N.Y./Syosset) scored consecutive goals to open the lead back to six, 10-4. Tom Ross (Adams, N.Y.) closed the third-quarter scoring with a goal for Clarkson.

Coppola, the national assist leader, set-up the first three goals of the fourth quarter to put Skidmore in front 13-5. Clarkson didn't quit, responding with a three-goal run of its own to close to within five, 13-8, but that was as close as the Golden Knights would get.

Cornell finished with a season-high five goals. Matt Levesque (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury) had two goals and two assists, while Coppola had a goal and five assists. Ryan Paradis (Brookside, N.J./Morristown-Beard) went 12-3 on faceoffs and had a game-high eight ground balls. Jacques Ward (New York, N.Y./Governors Acad.) had a goal, six ground balls and three caused turnovers.

Ross lead Clarkson with four goals, while Greg Gibbons added two goals. Chris Gavitt had five ground balls and three caused turnovers.

Skidmore goalie Flip Bongaerts (Summerland, Calif./New Caanan) had a season-high 16 saves, including nine in the first half. John Szvoren and Pat Sweeney had five saves each for Clarkson.

2009-04-26