POTSDAM, N.Y. – The Castleton University men's lacrosse team found itself in an early hole and never recovered Tuesday night, falling to SUNY Potsdam by a final score of 15-6 at Maxcy Turf Field.

The Spartans (0-4) fell behind 3-0 in the first quarter, as Potsdam (3-1) scored thrice in the first frame before adding two more to its lead in the second before Castleton got on the board. The first-half deficit doomed the Spartans, who were unable to get any closer than three goals in the second half.

Potsdam held a 39-37 edge in shots on the day, a 12-11 edge in face-off wins and a 41-40 edge in ground balls. Both sides were successful clearing the ball, Castleton going 15-of-20 and Potsdam 22-of-28, and Potsdam had just one turnover more than Castleton—27-26. The largest difference in the game came from shots on goal—as Castleton was on-target with just 16 of its 40 shots while Potsdam put 25 of its 41 shots on frame.

Connor Rider notched his first career hat-trick in the game, scoring on each of his three shots on the day. Cameron Russell, Conner Ladabouche and Jared Fontaine all added goals for Castleton in the loss, while Luc Issa collected a game-high eight ground balls and caused six turnovers. Maxx Ingison stopped seven shots in goal, playing the game's first 50 minutes before giving way to Brendan McGrath, who made three saves in the final 10 minutes.

Josh Huiatt had a six-point game for Potsdam, netting three goals and three assists for the Bears. Cam Talcott added two goals and a helper, while Cole Zeller and Keenan O'Gorman did the same. Luke Vitale grabbed six ground balls for Potsdam, while Ryan Canham caused six turnovers. Ben Fuchs made eight saves in 50 minutes, allowing just four goals to earn the win. Nate Prelewicz played the final 10 minutes, making two saves with two goals allowed.

After Potsdam scored the first five goals of the game over a 27-minute span, Castleton finally got on the board with just more than two minutes to play in the opening half when Fontaine buried a pass from Xavier McKenna to make it 5-1 at the half.

Ladabouche added Castleton's second goal 3:30 into the frame, but Potsdam answered right back 19 seconds later when Zeller scored his first of the day. The Bears tacked on two more to make it 8-2 before Rider netted his first goal of the game for the Spartans. Two more Potsdam goals in the third made it a 10-3 game going into the final 15 minutes.

The Bears scored two more to open the fourth, capping a 4-0 run, before Rusell found the back of the net for Castleton to stop the bleeding. With the score sitting at 12-4, Potsdam scored three more in succession to push its lead to 15-4 with just 7:18 remaining. Rider potted a pair of late goals, completing the hat trick and giving the game its 15-6 final score.

Castleton returns to the field Saturday at Utica at 2 p.m.