ROCHESTER, NY – The No. 3 RIT (8-0, 2-0 Liberty League) men's lacrosse team defeated Clarkson University (2-5, 0-1 Liberty League) 15-10 in Liberty League action from RIT's Turf Field Saturday afternoon. The Tigers featured a balanced scoring attack, with eight diffferent players scoring a goal, and 13 with at least one point.

RIT led 4-2 after the first quarter, and 7-3 at halftime. The Tigers led 13-5 after the third quarter, and scored twice in the fourth quarter for the 15-10 final. RIT has now won 48 straight regular season games.

Chad Levick (Newmarket, Ontario/The Hill Academy), Ryan Lee (Sharon, Ontario/The Hill Academy) and Jay Vakiener (Fairport, NY/Fairport) led the Tigers with four points apiece. Levick tallied four goals, and Vakiener scored three goals. Lee finished with two goals and two assists, and Kyle Sterzin (Fairport, NY/Fairport) finished with two goals and an assist. Trevor Smyth (Orangeville, Ontario/The Kiski School), Drew Tosaya (Kenmore, WA/Inglemoor), Cam Isaac (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas), and Braden Wallace (Oakville, Ontario/Abbey Park) each scored a goal for the Tigers.

RIT held a 50-35 shot advantage, and won the ground ball battle 46-24. The Tigers won 21-of-28 face-offs and went 14-of-16 on clearing attempts. Each team committed 17 turnovers, while RIT's man-up unit went 0-for-1.

Steven Ricci (Rochester, NY/Pittsford Sutherland) returned from an injury to win 14-of-19 draws, grabbing eight ground balls. Smyth finished with three caused turnovers, and Jakob Krzyston (Bedford, NH/Bishop Guertin) had two caused turnovers and had four ground balls. Josh Harris (St. Catharines, Ontario/Sir Winston Churchill) finished with a caused turnover and had five ground balls. Nick Nesbitt (Burlington, Ontario/Salisbuury School) got the win in net, making 11 saves in 52 minutes of action. Jon Berg (Chester, NJ/Mendham) played the final 7:51, making four saves.

Ryan DaRin and Ryan St. Croix led Clarkson with three goals apiece. Sam Groves finished with two assists, and Scott Dosser tallied two goals. J.R. Campbell added a goal and an assist. Nick Strandholm got the loss in net for the Golden Knights, making 15 saves.

Vakiener gave RIT an early lead, tallying the first of his three goals of the day at 12:08 of the first quarter off an assist from Alec Sulesky (Medina, OH/Medina). Levick gave RIT a 2-0 lead on his 15th goal of the season at 10:22 of the period off a feed from Sterzin. Lee tallied an unassisted goal at 9:08 to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead.

Clarkson got on the board with 5:31 to play in the first quarter when St. Croix scored an unassisted goal. Campbell scored a second straight goal for the Golden Knights at 3:52 to make it 3-2 RIT. Sterzin scored off an assist from Vakiener with 1:12 to play in the quarter to give the Tigers a 4-2.

Vakiener opened the scoring in the second quarter, scoring off an assist from Lee at 14:26 of the quarter to extend the Tigers lead to 5-2. Smyth took a feed from Alec Sovocool (Homer, NY/Homer) at 9:04 of the second, tallying his first goal of the season to give RIT a 6-2 lead.

Clarkson's lone goal of the quarter came with 11:37 to play when Scott Dosser fed DaRin which cut the RIT lead to 6-3. Wallace scored off a feed from Beau Riley (Homer, NY/Homer) with 3:49 to play in the half time give the Tigers a 7-3 halftime lead.

The Tigers tallied six third quarter goals to take control of the game. Levick scored three of his four goals in the third quarter. Lee, Tosaya and Isaac also scored in the third, while St. Croix and Shane Kilday scored for Clarkson.

Clarkson tallied five goals in the fourth quarter, while RIT scored two to make it a 15-10 final. DaRin and Dosser each scored two goals in the quarter for the Golden Knight, and St. Croix added a goal.

Vakiener and Sterzin each scored goals in the fourth quarter. Lee and Ben Tackett (Butler, PA/The Kiski School) had assists for the Tigers.

The Tigers improve to 28-14 all time versus Clarkson. RIT returns to action on Wednesday, March 30 when the Tigers face No. 9 Middlebury College at 7 p.m. at the Carrier Dome on the campus of Syracuse University.