Courtesy Middlebury Sports Information

Plattsburgh, NY. — The ninth-ranked Middlebury men’s lacrosse team earned a 10-8 road win at Plattsburgh State (3-3) on Tuesday afternoon. Jack Gould scored three times in the win, while Tim Giarrusso and Sean Carroll each scored twice. The Panthers (4-2) return to action on Saturday at Bowdoin. The contest was the team’s fourth-straight game decided by two or fewer goals, a pair of them needing overtime.

The Cardinals got on the board first as Matt Renko and Mitchell Labianca connected to make it 1-0 less than five minutes into the game. However, Middlebury struck with four-straight to end the first quarter, fueled by three goals by Gould to take a 4-1 lead into the first break.

Plattsburgh State and Middlebury traded the next four tallies to close the first half and into the third quarter with the Panthers holding a 6-3 lead.

The Cardinals went on a three goal streak of their own to knot the game up at 6-6 with 3:44 left in the third. Ryan Callahan, Mike Gay and Austin Belz each accounted for the Plattsburgh State tallies.

Knotted at 6-6, Middlebury tallied back-to-back goals by Giarrusso and Kyle Soroka on a man-up opportunity and reclaimed the lead at 8-6 with 10:52 left in the fourth quarter.

The Cardinals wouldn’t go quietly as Labianca and Patrick Nash combined for two more goals and got the game to even at 8-8 with just 7:15 left to play.

With the game deadlocked, Middlebury netted the final two goals when Giarrusso broke the 8-8 tie at 5:36, before Jon Broome capped the scoring with 3:17 left and made it a 10-8 final.

Plattsburgh State goalie Matt Massaria finished the game with seven saves, while counterpart Will Ernst made six saves for Middlebury.

The Cardinals owned a slight shot advantage (35-30), while the Panthers owned a 38-23 edge in ground balls.

Broome finished with a goal and two assists for Middlebury, while eight different players scored for Plattsburgh State.