EASTON, Pa. – The Binghamton men's lacrosse team (0-1) came up just short in its 2026 season opener as the Bearcats fell to Lafayette (1-1) 10-9 Tuesday night at Fisher Stadium.
 
2026 America East Preseason All-Conference Team selection Andrew Girolamo began the new year by tying his career high in goals with four. Connor Winters, who made 15 saves in net for the Bearcats, also registered his second collegiate goal in the third quarter. At the X, Flynn Wilson won a career-high 13 faceoff attempts for Binghamton.
 
Lafayette countered with three goals from both Benjamin DiBattista and Joseph Duggan. Joe Doherty made 11 saves in goal for the Leopards, including a crucial one on Girolamo with 32 seconds remaining to preserve the lead, and ultimately the win, for Lafayette.
 
Girolamo got the Bearcats out to a fast start by scoring the opening goal at the 11:48 mark in the first quarter. Drew Filanowski followed up with his first goal of the season at 9:00 to bring the Bearcats' lead up to 2-0. Lafayette would only get one goal up in the opening quarter, courtesy of Charlie Foley at 6:00, as Binghamton held a 2-1 lead through the first 15 minutes of play.
 
The Leopards responded early in the second quarter by scoring three goals, including two by DiBattista, in a span of 58 seconds to pull ahead 4-2 at the 12:05 mark. Girolamo kept the Bearcats in the game with his second strike of the night at 11:18, but Lafayette kept its run going with two more goals to go into halftime up 6-3.
 
After the second half opened with a defensive battle between both teams, Duggan eventually scored for Lafayette to increase the Leopards' lead to 7-3 with 8:00 left in the third quarter. The Bearcats then took the momentum back, as both Colin DeLay and Gavin Jacobsen scored a goal, the latter coming on the man advantage, to bring Binghamton within two at 7-5 with 1:11 remaining.
 
After Jacobsen's tally, Wilson won the ensuing faceoff. The faceoff specialist, who collected the ground ball, sent a high pass intended for Jojo Provenzano behind the Binghamton net, but the ball went off the end of Provenzano's stick and rolled towards the end line. Provenzano reached and tapped the ball towards Winters to keep the play going. The netminder collected the ball before spinning around DiBattista and then firing a shot towards the Lafayette net on the other end of the field. Doherty, who had vacated the net, watched with his teammates as Winters' shot went into the goal to bring the Bearcats within one at 7-6 with 54 seconds left.
 
But Binghamton's run was not finished.
 
Lafayette won the next faceoff, but Winters stopped a shot from Nick Faccone, giving the Bearcats one more rush before the end of the quarter. Eventually, Filanowski was able to fire in his second goal of the net with seven seconds remaining to tie the match at 7. Both teams had a new ballgame going into the fourth quarter.
 
The Leopards began the fourth with a goal from Aidan Kopen, but Girolamo responded by securing a hat trick at 9:33 to tie the game at 8. Lafayette then responded with back-to-back goals from DiBattista and Duggan 37 seconds apart to put the Leopards ahead 10-8 at 6:30. Binghamton's defense would keep Lafayette within striking distance, allowing Girolamo to score his fourth goal of the night on the man advantage at 2:59. Down 10-9, the Bearcats looked to send the game to overtime. Holding the ball with less than one minute left, Will Feldmann got a look towards the net near the crease, but his shot went high of the goal. Binghamton recovered the ball, giving Girolamo an opportunity to pick up his fifth goal of the night, but Doherty stopped him with a save. Lafayette proceeded to run out most of the clock, allowing the Leopards to pick up the win.
 
Other Notes

• Girolamo's four goals are the most by a Bearcat in a season opener for Binghamton since both Gage Adams and Matthew Keegan scored five against Marist in an 18-11 win for the Bearcats on Feb. 11, 2023, in Poughkeepsie, N.Y. Girolamo, who also recorded a hat trick at Lafayette in Binghamton's 2025 season opener on Feb. 10, now has five hat tricks in his career.
• The last goal Winters scored came in his first season as the starting netminder for the Bearcats at Merrimack on March 18, 2023. Winters also made 13 saves and collected three ground balls to help the Bearcats defeat the Warriors 14-7 in North Andover, Mass.
• Matthew Rincon, who also enters this season as an America East Preseason All-Conference selection, tied Wilson for the team lead in ground balls Tuesday night with four.
• Freshman Nico Spaziani picked up his first collegiate assist on Jacobsen's goal in the third quarter.

 
Up Next
Binghamton returns to the Southern Tier for its home opener when it hosts St. Bonaventure at noon on Saturday at the Bearcats Sports Complex.
 
Station 45 American Chop House is the presenting sponsor of Bearcats Men's Lacrosse.