Haefele and Bucchino Earn E8 honors
Troy Haefele, freshman attackman on the Nazareth men's lacrosse team, and Dave Bucchino, senior goalie for Elmira College, have been named Empire 8 Conference Player and Goalie of the Week for the seven-day period that ended April 21.
Haefele, of Greene, Maine and a graduate of St. Dominic Regional High School, helped the Golden Flyers to a pair of Empire 8 Conference wins last week to run their winning streak to four games. He scored three goals and added three assists in a 12-10 win at Alfred last Tuesday. He then matched a career high with four goals in Nazareth'a 17-8 victory over then-No. 6 Stevens last Saturday.
Haefele ranks second on the Golden Flyers in scoring in 2013 with 46 points on 33 goals, 13 assists. Nazareth, now, 10-4 overall and 5-0 in the Empire 8, cracked the national rankings for the first time this season as the Golden Flyers checked in at No. 17.
Nazareth has two regular-season games left -- Wednesday at St. John Fisher at 7 p.m. and Saturday at home against Elmira at 1 p.m.
Bucchino had a remarkable week in net for Elmira as he finished with 40 saves in seven quarters of action this week. The senior made a career high 27 saves Saturday against Utica recording an impressive .643 save percentage. The 27 stops rank as tied for the 9th most of any goalie in the nation in a single game this season. On Wednesday against No. 6 Stevens Bucchino stopped 13 shots to finish with a .556 save percentage for the week.
So far this season Bucchino has ranked himself among the best goalies in the nation. As of games played through April 21st he sits at 14th in the country with 14.73 saves per contest.
Elmira closes out its season with a pair of road games this week. EC takes on Ithaca Wednesday at 4:00 p.m. and Nazareth Saturday at 1:00 p.m.