SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. – An eight-goal first period was more than enough for the Skidmore College men's lacrosse team, who celebrated Senior Day with a 17-7 victory against Bard, in Liberty League action at Wachenheim Field on a warm and sunny Saturday afternoon.
 
Skidmore (7-8, 2-5 Liberty League) have won seven games in a season for the first time since 2011. Bard (2-11, 0-8) remains winless in league contests.
 
Before the contest, Skidmore honored 11 members of the class of 2018: Jeff Okoro, Cody Legeza, Brendan Halloran, Jack McElgunn, RJ Caruso, Jack Curry, Ryan Warnock, Ian Maag, Chris Melligon, Tommy Kane, and Chris Baughan. After the pregame festivities, a fired-up Thoroughbred team went right to work, opening the game with six unanswered goals, eventually setting a season-high with eight goals in a period.
 
It was a balanced scoring effort for the Thoroughbreds, as 11 players would tally a goal. Halloran would score five goals to lead the Thoroughbreds in the victory. Legeza tallied two goals and two assists for four points. Caruso also tallied a pair of goals. Curry, Eric Megnia, and Jason Shlonsky would score a goal and add an assist for two points each. Will Lukas added two assists. Okoro scored his first career goal in the contest, with Warnock, Melligon, Ward Mahoney, and Garrett Munck also scoring.

Warnock went 8-for-12 at the faceoff 'X', adding four ground balls. Eli Millstein also had a solid afternoon, going 8-for-12 at the 'X'. Alex Miller and Alex Towey would lead the Thoroughbreds with two caused turnovers each.

Playing in his final home contest, Baughan made seven saves in 36:38 for the victory, the 21^st of his career. Tim Rahill would make three saves in relief, with Dylan Fleishmann making two saves in the final 12:39.
 
Corey Rich tallied six points on five goals and one assist to lead the Raptors. Emmet O'Connell added two goals and two assists. Lyle Healey stopped 15 shots in the loss.
 
After a scoring binge in the first quarter, which included four man-up goals, Caruso began the second period with his second of the game, at the 5:28 mark. O'Connell would answer for Bard at just under the three-minute mark, before Legeza ended the half with his unassisted goal at 1:20, as Skidmore took a 10-3 lead into the half.
 
Megnia and Halloran would open the second half with goals, before Bard answered with two of their own to cut the deficit to seven at the 3:41 mark. 45 seconds later, Halloran would answer with his fifth tally of the game, and Melligon and Mahoney started the fourth with goals, giving Skidmore its largest lead of the game at 16-5. Bard would score twice to get the deficit under double-digits, before Munck ended the scoring with Skidmore's fifth man-up goal of the game, a season-high.
 
Skidmore would go 5-for-5 on extra man opportunities, holding Bard to 1-for-3. The Thoroughbreds outshot the Raptors by a 55-29 margin, including a 32-19 mark in shots on goal. Skidmore also turned the ball over a season-low seven times, forcing 17 Bard turnovers. Both teams were solid in transition, with Bard going 17-for-20 in clear attempts, compared to Skidmore's 18-for-20.
 
The Thoroughbreds will wrap up the 2018 season with a trip to Vassar on Wednesday at 5 p.m.