POTSDAM, N.Y.—Sophomore attackman Eric Soderquist (Watertown, N.Y./Watertown) scored a career-high eight goals to lift the SUNY Potsdam men's lacrosse team (3-1) to a 14-8 victory over Castleton University (1-3) on a rainy Wednesday evening. Senior captain Ed Doherty (Amherst, N.Y./Amherst) added two goals and fellow senior captain Pat Bonafede (Churchville, N.Y./Churchville-Chili) finished with four assists for the Bears.
 
In the driving rain of the first half, the offenses struggled to get rolling. Junior attackman Berkley Stone (Madison, Conn./Daniel Hand) got Potsdam on the board first with an assist from senior midfielder Brian Martin (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport). Freshman midfielder Wyatt Pickrell (Newmarket, Ontario/Sir William Mulock) and senior attackman Taylor Swarter (Avondale, Pa./Tatnall School) got the next two for the Spartans to give them their lone lead of the contest at 2-1 with 2:04 left. Soderquist buried his first to tie the game 59 second later.
 
Soderquist and Doherty scored in succession, with Bonafede assisting on the latter goal, to give the Bears the lead for good with 9:52 left in the second. Freshman attackman Kyle Lutinski (New Fairfield, Conn./New Fairfield) answered 1:22 later to get the Spartans back within 4-3. However, Potsdam finished at the half on a 5-0 run to take a 9-3 lead into the break. Junior midfielder Matt Kennedy (Clay, N.Y./Cicero-North Syracuse) started the run. Soderquist scored the next three with assists from junior midfielder Casey Boulio (Cathage, N.Y./Carthage) and sophomore midfielder Nick Orsini (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport). Junior attackman Michael Roukous (Dexter, N.Y./General Brown) scored the Bears' ninth goal with 2:15 on the clock. Part of the first half dominance was due to senior Brandon Grace (Penn Yan, N.Y./Penn Yan) who won nine of 10 faceoffs in the opening 30 minutes.
 
Lutinski scored his second of the game three minutes into the second half, but Potsdam answered with another three in a row. Soderquist scored at 10:32. Bonafede set up SUNYAC Player of the Week Matt Moran (Watertown, N.Y./Immaculate Heart) at 9:12 and Soderquist scored his seventh while the Bears were a man up to make it 12-4 with 2:10 left. Sophomore attackman Sam Siegel (Brattleboro, Vt./Brattleboro) got one back for Castleton with 26 seconds left and it was 12-5 after 45 minutes.
 
Bonafede set up Soderquist's eighth of the night 2:50 into the final quarter and did the same for Doherty while a man-up 51 seconds later to extend the lead to 14-5. The Spartans scored the final three of the contest to close out the 14-8 decision. Freshman midfielder Jason Sedell (Pinebrook, N.J./DePaul Catholic) scored at 9:31. Senior midfielder Zach Devoid (St. Alban's, Vt./BFA-St. Alban's) struck at 8:11 and junior midfielder Louis Alhage (New Milford, Conn./New Milford) made the most of an extra-man opportunity to close the scoring at 6:50.
 
In goal, senior captain Pete Gropp (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) made nine saves to capture his 10th career victory. Freshman goalie Romello Lindsey (Red Vale, Colo./Brattleboro) was tagged with the loss after allowing nine goals and stopping six shots in the first 30 minutes. Senior goalie Peter Latulippe (Tyngsboro, Mass./Tyngsboro) allowed five goals and made eight saves in the second half.
 
Potsdam outshot Castleton 43-27 and edged the Spartans in ground balls (40-37) and faceoffs (14-10). Both teams were 2-for-6 in extra-man opportunities.   
 
The Bears are now 4-0 all-time against the Spartans. They are averaging 15.3 goals-per-game during their current three-game winning streak.
 
Potsdam will now head to Syracuse for Saturday's neutral site contest with Kean University (4-1) at 3:30 p.m. on the campus of Onondaga Community College. The teams have split their only two meetings with the Cougars winning a 7-5 battle on March 22, 2014 and the Bears getting revenge last March 21 with an 11-7 victory.