GENESEO, N.Y.—The SUNY Potsdam men's lacrosse team (9-1, 2-0 SUNYAC) held off SUNY Geneseo (5-4, 1-1) 9-7 on Saturday afternoon for its ninth straight victory. The win was the Bears' first at Geneseo since 2000. Senior captain Ed Doherty (Amherst, N.Y./Amherst) led Potsdam with three goals and one assist. Senior midfielder Brian Martin (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) had two goals and an assist and junior attack Berkley Stone (Madison, Conn./Daniel Hand) finished with two goals. In goal, senior captain Pete Gropp (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) made 13 saves for his 14th career win.

Potsdam controlled much of the play in the early going, but could never quite pull away from the Blue Knights. Stone got the scoring started, giving the Bears a 1-0 lead 1:32 into the contest. Geneseo answered with two straight in 10 seconds for its first lead of the day at 5:37. With 4:21 to go in the opening quarter, sophomore attackman Eric Soderquist (Watertown, N.Y./Watertown) set up senior captain Ed Doherty (Amherst, N.Y./Amherst) and the contest was tied 2-2 after 15 minutes.

Kyle Wanamaker scored at 7:59 of the second quarter for the Blue Knights' last lead of the contest. Potsdam answered with a 4-0 run carrying over into the second half. Senior captain Pat Bonafede (Churchville, N.Y./Churchville-Chili) tied the game at 7:01 and junior midfielder Matt Moran (Watertown, N.Y./Immaculate Heart) put Potsdam up for good at 2:10 and the Bears took a 4-3 advantage into the break. Gropp played his part in keeping Potsdam in front with six saves in the quarter.

Martin made it 5-3 2:07 into the third quarter and Doherty fed Stone for a 6-3 lead at 11:49. Geneseo scored the two of the next three goals to close the gap to 7-5 with 3:24 to play in the third. The Bears' goal came from Martin on an assist from Bonafede at 6:19. Potsdam held the two-goal lead at the end of the third.

Soderquist set up Doherty at 10:36 of the fourth, but Geneseo countered at 8:57. The Bears maintained possession for much of the middle of the final 15 minutes, but were unable to add to their lead. When the Blue Knights did create an opportunity, Gropp was there to frustrate them. He made five more saves in the quarter, including two in the final 2:19. Geneseo scored its final goal at 1:49, making it a one-goal contest. However, Potsdam senior Brandon Grace (Penn Yan, N.Y./Penn Yan) won the ensuing faceoff cleanly and Bonafede set up Doherty 24 seconds later to make it 9-7. Gropp's final save came with 44 seconds left. Potsdam then cleared the zone and ran out the clock.

Michael Yehl made eight saves for the Blue Knights and Joe Chiara paced Geneseo's offense with two goals and an assist.

The Bears topped the Blue Knights in shots (39-34), ground balls (30-21) and faceoffs (11-8). Grace won 10 of his 18 faceoff opportunities on the afternoon. Potsdam was 0-for-1 on the man advantage and held Geneseo scoreless in four attempts.

Next, the Bears host North Country rival SUNY Plattsburgh on Wednesday at 7 p.m. The matchup with the Cardinals is the beginning of a critical three-game home stand, which continues with SUNY Cortland next Saturday and St. Lawrence University the following Tuesday.