Ithaca Locks Up Top Seed: Fisher and Stevens Clinch

4/23/2014 9:30:00 PM

ITHACA 18, Alfred 6
The 11th-ranked Ithaca College men's lacrosse team (12-3, 6-0 Empire 8) secured the top seed in the Empire 8 Championship Tournament Wednesday afternoon with an 18-6 victory at Alfred (4-8, 1-5 Empire 8).

The Bombers, who have won five straight games, powered to a 10-0 lead early in the second period before Alfred snapped its scoring silence. Ithaca netted four of the next five for a 14-2 advantage at the half. Both squads posted two goals each in the third and fourth periods.
 
A trio of Bombers registered hat tricks, while nine others contributed one goal apiece. Senior Pat Slawta led the Bombers with five points on three scores and two assists. Junior James Manilla and freshman Justin Bird chipped in career-best three-score performances. Senior Jake Long dished out a career-high tying three assists and netted one, while classmates Casey Schattner and Brandon Henne and freshman John Januszkiewicz each added one and one.
 
Seniors Andrew Kristy and Ryan Burns, juniors Matt Greenblatt and Steve Danylyshyn and freshman Grant Osadchey accounted for the Bombers' other five scores.
 
The Blue & Gold won 19-of-26 faceoffs. Henne went 11-for-13, Greenblatt was 5-for-8, Osadchey 2-for-3 and freshman Forrest Rall 1-for-2. Henne and sophomore Eli Gobrecht scooped up five ground balls each. Danylyshyn added four. Gobrecht led the game with three caused turnovers.

Sophomore Scott Sidnam recorded the win in goal having made eight stops during the first three quarters. Freshmen Jack Deragon and Justin Isaacs split the fourth with Deragon making one save.
 
Ithaca outshot Alfred 39-33 and collected 28 ground balls to the Saxons' 22.
 

ST. JOHN FISHER 8, Utica 5
The St. John Fisher College men's lacrosse team pushed its winning streak to six games on Wednesday after overcoming a two-goal deficit en route to an 8-5 win over Empire 8 opponent Utica College.  With the win, Fisher moves to 6-1 in conference play and 10-4 overall, marking the eighth consecutive year that Fisher has posted at least 10 wins in a season.  The Pioneers dip to 7-8 on the year and 3-4 in the Empire 8 standings.  The win clinched a spot in the upcoming Empire 8 Championship for Fisher.

The Pioneers controlled the tempo early, netting two goals in the opening period before Fisher could get on the board, scoring its first goal of the afternoon only seven seconds into the second frame when Jeff Wester found Gary Bova who buried his 20th goal of the season. 

Both teams played exceptional defense throughout the remainder of the quarter until Fisher tied the score at two goals apiece with 36 seconds left to play in the opening half as Wester once again dished out an assist, this time to Brett Farrell.

Wester would give Fisher its first lead of the contest early in the third quarter, beating the Utica goalie for his 14th goal of the season, but the lead would be short-lived, however, as the Pioneers scored the equalizer at 10:41 to tie the game at 3-3.

Both teams battled back and forth until Tim Wagner put Fisher up for good, scoring from the left side of the cage before the Cardinals notched two quick man-up goals from Greg Ramsden and Nick Rossi, respectively.

The Pioneers would cut the lead to 6-4 in the fourth quarter, but that was as close as the visitors would come as the Cardinals scored two of the game's final three goals to earn an 8-5 decision.

Paul Cefalu was 10-for-15 from the X and accounted for seven groundballs, while Mike Blood and Farrell each scooped up three.

Jamie Campagna lowered his goals against average to 5.77 after accounting for 11 saves in net for his eighth win of the season.

Ramsden led all scorers with three points on two goals and an assist, while Wagner netted two goals in the win.


STEVENS 23, Elmira 6
Sixteen members of the Stevens Institute of Technology men's lacrosse team tallied at least one point in Stevens' 23-6 triumph over Elmira College in Empire 8 Conference play. With the win, the Ducks (7-7, 4-2) clinch a trip to the Empire 8 Tournament on April 30.

Stevens jumped out to a 7-0 lead after one quarter against Elmira (2-11, 1-6) and continued to build on its advantage as the game progressed through the other three periods. The Ducks scored three more times in the second and went into halftime up, 10-3. After intermission, the cushion ballooned to 17-4 heading to the fourth, where Stevens outscored the Soaring Eagles, 6-2, in the stanza.

The Ducks scored 23 goals against the Soaring Eagles last season as well.

Offensively, the Ducks were led by eight points from junior Michael Maroon who dished out six assists and scored a pair of goals. Senior Charlie Cronin and sophomore Matt Ferentini each registered six points in the win. Cronin netted a game-high five goals with and an assist, while Ferentini notched three goals and three assists.

Sophomores Andrews Scrutchfield and Michael Serrante, and freshman Quintin Bower each put in two scores. Those are the first two goals of Bower's career at Stevens.

Also getting in on their first collegiate goals this afternoon were freshmen Tim Leahey, John Marchese and Tom Marchese. Tom Marchese also assisted on one goal.

Senior Sean Scrudato scored once, as did sophomores Colin Sawula and Anthony Raposo, and freshman Connor Towne.

Raposo, sophomores Brett Incollingo and Connor O'Shea and freshman Connor McKeon each handed out an assist to round out the offense.

Incollingo dominated at the faceoff "X", winning 15-of-18 tries to go along with a game-high 12 groundballs. Freshman Matt Levine went 6-for-11 in faceoffs with three groundballs and sophomore Jeff Wyckoff won all three attempts.

Sophomore Austin Boyd picked up his second victory of the season with two saves in 25:04 between the pipes. Freshman Anthony Setola stopped eight shots in 34:56 minutes of action.

The Ducks dominated every aspect of the contest, outshooting Elmira, 63-25, and scooped up 30 more groundballs – 50-20. Stevens converted on 4-of-11 man-up chances and was nearly perfect in clears, going 18-for-20.
 


STANDINGS

SCHOOL	CONF	OVERALL
Ithaca	6-0	12-2
St. John Fisher	5-1	10-4
Nazareth	5-1	8-8
Stevens	4-2	7-7
Utica	3-4	7-8
Alfred	1-5	4-8
Elmira	1-6	2-11
Hartwick	0-6	3-9
Houghton	0-0	0-14
Houghton is an NCAA provisional member and games against the Highlanders will not impact conference records/standings.