ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. - The Bard College men's lacrosse was noticeably fired up for Saturday's season finale. With no disrespect intended, it had nothing to do with the opponent.

Harrison Mauldin, a former Bard player who would have been a senior this year, recently began a 10-month chemotherapy regimen to battle a rare form of leukemia. His family brought him from the hospital to Bard on Saturday, and he arrived during Bard's decisive 18-9 victory over Cobleskill.

The team had custom t-shirts designed and printed; the players wore them during the pregame and postgame; the coaching staff wore them all day. Parents help to sell extra t-shirts during the game to benefit the Mauldin family. The team wore orange stripes on their helmets for leukemia awareness, as well as Mauldin's initials on their facemasks, which is part of Helmets for Harrison, which you can read about here.

After the final horn, Mauldin joined the team on the field, where he was presented with a mounted, framed No. 34 jersey, the one he wore during his freshman and sophomore years in Annandale. All of the players, and some former players, got together for a tailgate arranged by Bard parents. It was a good day.

On the field, Bard dispatched the Fighting Tigers in a game that was snowed-out in March. The game was briefly tied 1-1, then not again, as Bard (5-9) outscored Cobleskill (4-10) in every quarter and won going away.

Emmet O'Connell had five goals and an assist; George Goceljak, one of Bard's six seniors playing for the last time, had four goals and an assist. Freshman Sam Smith scored three times, John Palermo had two goals and an assist, and defensemen Will Hughes and William Baffuto made the most of their chance to play offense, scoring a goal apiece. Freshman Corey Rich added a goal and three assists, while senior goalie Troy Ludtka made 10 saves.

Mauldin will go back home and resume this grueling round of treatments. The keep track of how he's doing, follow along on this Facebook page created by his family. If you'd like to donate to the effort to help the Mauldin family with medical bills, visit this page.