Kingston, NY (March 1, 2017) – It's official: Game 1 is in the books.

The Purchase College men's lacrosse team played their inaugural varsity game Tuesday night, becoming the program's 17th intercollegiate varsity sport.

Although the historic evening fell short of victory, with the Panthers falling 17-2 to non-conference opponent Bard College, Purchase put up a good fight early, trailing 4-1, and the entire program felt good about getting Day 1 under their belts.

The first official goal in program history went to Dylan Gethicker (JR/Lime Lake, NY) (3:44). The first official assist went to Daniel Desaulniers (FR/Watertown, CT) on the Gethicker goal. At that point, Purchase trailed 4-1 early in the contest.

The Raptors (2-0) opened the night by scoring on their first shot attempt, just a little over a minute into the match. Anthony Stanley rocketed a shot into the net off a pass from Corey Rich. The Raptors followed up the Stanley goal with three more, as they pushed the score line to 4-0, with just over a little more than 10 minutes gone in the first quarter.  

Following the Gethicker score, the Raptors proceeded to score the next 13 goals of the match, to go up 17-1, midway through the third quarter. 

However, the Panthers did have a memorable moment on the field Wednesday night, beyond playing in the program's first ever match, as one of their players scored an outstanding goal.

The highlight came in the third quarter, when Purchase's, Desaulniers received the ball near midfield, before breaking away toward goal and making Bard defenders miss, as he took it himself and beat the keeper into the top-left corner. 

The goal made the score line, 17-2, where it would finish scoring on the night, as Bard chose not to run the score up over the final period of play. 

For Bard, Emmet O'Connell led the way with four goals and an assist. Rich had three goals and three assists.

Purchase was paced offensively by Gethicker and Desaulniers.

The Panthers (0-1) return to action this weekend on the road.  

-Bard Sports Information Contributed to this report