Ithaca Men’s Lacrosse Trounces Hartwick, 15-3, on Senior Day
ITHACA, N.Y. – The Ithaca men’s lacrosse team (8-6, 4-2 Empire 8) used 10 unanswered goals to upend visiting Hartwick (7-8, 2-5 Empire 8), 15-3, on Saturday afternoon at Higgins Stadium. The Bombers can clinch a bid to the conference tournament with a win over Alfred in its home finale on Wednesday, April 27 at 4 p.m.
The Bombers opened the game with five consecutive scores as the Hawks were held scoreless in the first stanza. Hartwick looked to come alive with two man-up scores to bring the game to 5-2, but Ithaca ran away with the game netting 10 consecutive before a Hartwick score finalized all scoring at 15-3.
Senior Michael Silipo (Williston Northampton/Deerfield, Mass.) did not disappoint the eager crowd on senior day. He tallied a game- and career-high five scores, while freshmen Jake Long (Upper Dublin/Ft. Washington, Pa.) and Ryan Burns (Upper Dublin/Ft. Washington, Pa.) added two scores each.
Junior Devin Weinshank (Long Beach/Long Beach) was one of six Bombers to net one goal apiece, while also adding a game-high assist performance with three. Freshman Casey Schattner (West Genesee/Syracuse), who also tallied once, dished out a pair of assists.
Junior Brian DiBetta (John Jay/Katonah) recorded a career-best in faceoff wins having won 15 of the 17 he attempted. He also added four ground balls, second to freshman Andrew Kristy (Fairport/Fairport) who led the game with a career-high count of six.
Senior David Gal (Loomis Chafee (Conn.)/Amherst, Mass.) claimed the victory in goal having made 10 stops for Ithaca in 51:52, before being relieved by sophomore Luke Robinson (Fox Lane/Bedford) who closed out the action making three saves in goal.
Silipo opened all scoring at the 9:25 mark of the first period and struck twice more, in addition to sophomore Andrew Bruce (De La Salle/Lafayette, Calif.) and Long finding the back of the net to go ahead 5-0 at the 14-minute mark of the second frame.
Playing a man-up Hartwick twice netted goals within a one-minute span to bring the game to 5-2 before Ithaca rattled off 10 straight scores.
Long and Silipo both went unassisted before junior Tom Mongelli (Kinnelon/Kinnelon, N.J.) found Weinshank for a score at 3:27. The
Mongelli-Weinshank tandem flip-flopped rolls with 14 seconds lingering in the second period as Mongelli scored to take a 9-2 lead at intermission.
Holding the Hawks silent in the third period, the Bombers put three away for a 12-2 advantage. Weinshank fed Silipo just one minute into the frame and Burns and Schattner each went unassisted to solidify a double-digit goal advantage.
Burns opened the final stanza with a goal at 12:32. Freshman Pat Slawta (Walt Whitman/Bethesda, Md.) received Weinshank’s final assist of the day to score at 11:05 and Schattner found freshman Trevor Lundblad (Forest Hills Central/Ada, Mich.) with 8:08 of play remaining.
Hartwick tallied the game’s final goal at the six-minute mark of the fourth.
The Hawks narrowly outshot Ithaca, 33-31, while the Bombers edged Hartwick, 28-27, in ground balls and won 17 off 22 faceoffs.
All three of Hartwick’s goals came in man-up opportunities.
Box Score