Potsdam, N.Y. - Senior Griffin Emerson would post a career-high 23 saves but a slow start to the second half proved to be the ultimate downfall for the Clarkson University Men's Lacrosse team who dropped a 15-9 decision to Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Saturday afternoon at Hantz Field. 

Prior to the start the team recognized Jack Garvey, CJ Krug, Joe Porto, Griffin Emerson and Henry Bergeron as the senior members of the Class of 2026. 

The loss for the Knights comes as the fourth in the last five league games as they fall to 8-5 overall, 2-4 in the Liberty League while RPI improves to 9-7 overall, 2-4 in conference play. Union is next up as the Golden Knights travel to Schenectady for their final regular season contest of 2026 next Saturday. 

Ethan Hopkins notched the opener less than three minutes into the contest off a feed from William Goyette as the Knights looked to build on their fast start. The visitors, however, would hit back with back-to-back goals from Cooper Manzi and Tyler Ruffini to immediately reverse the one-goal deficit on the scoreboard. 

Robert Fox managed to find the back of the net on a man-up goal just over a minute later to make it 2-2 while an Ian Erskine goal with less than 30 seconds remaining in the opening quarter offset another Engineer score to make it 3-3 after one. 

The second quarter followed in similar fashion as the teams would be neck-and-neck for the entirety of it. Mario Strieff got the Knights on the board first in the period off a feed from Donnie Duffus at the 10:35 mark to give Clarkson its first lead since the game's opening goal. RPI would again counter with two straight tallies just over 90 seconds to reverse the deficit before Erskine leveled things again with a slotted effort off a dish from Holly with just over four minutes left in the half. Ben Shocket capped off a dominant performance in the faceoff circle through the opening half of play as he would again put the visitors back into the lead just five seconds later, scoring directly from the win at the mid-line. 

RPI would take control of the contest in the opening minutes of the second half as the Engineers rattled off three unanswered goals in the first five minutes. James O'Rourke would finally stem the slide for the Knights with an unassisted breakthrough at the nine minute mark but the damage inflicted seemed to have changed the flow of the game. Four more unanswered scores from Rensselaer before the end of the quarter backed that up as the visitors held a 13-6 advantage, outsourcing the Knights 7-1 in the third alone, headed into the final 15 minutes of the afternoon. 

Streiff and Holly both gave the Knights a bit of hope to open the fourth quarter with the senior and graduate student scoring the first three of the final frame to bring Clarkson back to within four with just over four minutes remaining. That glimmer proved to be too faint, however, as the Engineers would play keepaway from the Knights while scoring two more at the 3:15 and 2:34 mark to secure the 15-9 final. 

Emerson collected three ground balls and caused two turnovers to go along with his 23-save performance between the pipes. Robert Fox would finish with a goal and two assists on the offensive end while also forcing two turnovers. Streiff, Holly and Erskine all finished with two goals apiece to lead the goal threat for the Knights while William Goyette dished out two helpers of his own as well. 

Hunter Sullivan and Jake Lunati split the contest in net for the Engineers with the former making six saves in the start while Lunati stopped two in the second half. Manzi and Easton Morse led the way for the Engineers with four and three goals, respectively.