Victories for Utica, Naz, Ithaca and Fisher
NAZARETH v STEVENS
Nazareth scored five of six goals in the opening 11 minutes of the fourth quarter to stretch an 11-10 edge into a 16-11 lead. The Golden Flyers went on to defeat the Ducks 18-13 in the Empire 8 Conference men's lacrosse game on Saturday afternoon. Junior
Dan O'Brien began the scoring run with an unassisted goal 52 seconds into the fourth.
Will Fallo,
Luke Wooters,
Troy Haefele, and
Matt McDermott each added a goal to build the Nazareth advantage.
Nazareth and Stevens traded scoring runs through the majority of Saturday's contest. The Golden Flyers tallied the first three goals in the opening 3:21 for the early lead. Sophomore
Hunter Burdick and senior
Matt McDermott scored in a 39-second span, and Haefele capped the early run with a man-up goal after receiving a pass from Wooters.
The Ducks answered with the final four goals of the period to claim a one-goal lead at the end of the first. Connor McKeon had a pair of goals in the run, including a man-up tally. Matt Ferentini and Anthony Raposo also scored.
In the second period, Nazareth answered with another three-goal run to reclaim the lead. Fallo and Haefele had a pair of man-up goals sandwiched around a
Dan O'Brien's first goal of the game. McDermott and Wooters assisted on Fallo and Haefele's man-up goals, respectively. The Ducks and Golden Flyers traded the final four goals of the half to leave Nazareth ahead 8-6 at the break. Wooters had both of the Golden Flyers' goals, including a man-down goal during which he beat a pair of Ducks' defenders. It was a pivotal moment as it stretched Nazareth's lead to two goals going into the second half. Matt Ferentini and McKeon had the goals for Stevens.
Similar to the first two quarters, the Golden Flyers scored the first three goals of the stanza. Wooters tallied his 34th goal of the season 4:22 into the third, which was followed by a man-up goal by junior
Matt O'Neill and an unassisted score by Fallo. Fallo's goal stretched Nazareth's lead to 11-6. Penalties whistled on the Golden Flyers allowed Stevens to crawl back into the game. Nazareth had three penalties whistled in one sequence to allow the Ducks a 6-on-3 advantage. After multiple saves by junior
Scott Brown, Miachael Maroon found the back of the net. Stevens had a 6-on-4 advantage after two additional penalties were called. The Ducks added two more goals in a span of 1:22 to cut the deficit to 11-10 going into the fourth.
The Golden Flyers' seven goals in the fourth secured the victory. In addition to the goals by O'Brien, Fallo, Wooters, Haefele, and McDermott, senior
A.J. Small added goal in transition and O'Neill added a man-up goal in the closing minutes.
With eight penalties called on Nazareth, Stevens finished with a 50-45 advantage in total shots, including a 26-16 advantage in the second half. The Golden Flyers held the Ducks to 3-8 on man-up chances. Nazareth, meanwhile, converted all five of its man-up opportunities. After having a less effective day against Cortland's sixth-ranked faceoff specialist on Wednesday, senior
Drew Simoneau returned to dominating faceoffs and ground balls on Saturday. Simoneau won 24 of 35 draws and scooped a game-high 16 ground balls. Coming into the week, Simoneau ranked first in Divsion III with a winning percentage of .729. He also ranked first in ground balls collected per game with an average of 10.85.
Sophomore
Michael Cuciti started in the Nazareth net and played the first half. He made eight saves and allowed six goals. In the second half, Brown was credited with eight saves, too, and he allowed seven goals. Kevin Rafferty took the loss for Stevens with allowing all 18 of the Golden Flyers' goals and making 10 saves.
ITHACA v HARTWICK
The Ithaca College men's lacrosse team celebrated senior day with a 23-8 win over Hartwick in Empire 8 action on Saturday, April 18, at Higgins Stadium. Ithaca improves its conference record to 5-1 and is now 10-4 overall on the season. Hartwick is 3-8 overall and 2-5 in the Empire 8.
Prior to the faceoff, the Bombers honored seven seniors; defenders
John Figarelli,
Jimmy Ryan and
George Voucas; midfielders
Steve Danylyshyn and
Matt Greenblatt; attackman
James Manilla and student assistant coach
Alex Karman.
The Bombers limited the Hawks to just two goals in the first half, one in each of the first two quarters. Eleven Ithaca athletes recorded goals in the conference win.
Ithaca dominated the game from the start with six unanswered goals in the first 12 minutes of play. The first goal came just seven seconds into the game, when sophomore
Jack Shumway convereted on a pass from Manilla. Hartwick got on the board with 2:42 left in the quarter. The Bombers scored again, extending their lead 7-1 after the first quarter.
Ithaca held the Hawks to just one goal in the second quarter. The Bombers went on to put eight more shots away against Hartwick to lead 15-2 at halftime.
In the third quarter, the Bombers registered three more goals to Hartwicks two. The score favored Ithaca 18-4 entering the final frame.
The Hawks went on a three-goal rally to start the fourth quarter. The Bombers then responded with four goals of their own to take a 22-7 lead. Each team would score once more in the game to make the final score 23-8, giving Ithaca its fifth conference win.
Sophomore
Jack Shumway led Ithaca's offensive effort with four goals and an assist. Senior
James Manilla posted a team-best five assists.
Junior
Eli Gobrecht and freshman
Kaelan Fitzpatrick each recorded three goals on the day. Sophomore
John Januszkiewicz registered two goals and an assist against the Hawks.
Austin Smith,
Stephen Morrell,
Michael Walker and
Gabe Greenberg all logged two goals.
Alex Sullivan,
Jack Isafand
Jordan Brett all contributed a goal in the Bombers' win. Sullivan also had an assist.
Jamison Whitfield and
Marc Ross marked career best numbers with two assists each.
Jimmy Ryan,
Jack Shumway,
Steve Danylyshyn, and
Jake Cotton all added an assist for Ithaca.
Matt Greenblatt won 17-of-21 faceoff attempts and scooped 10 groundballs on the day.
John Figarelli, Gobrecht and Ryan all grabbed seven groundballs. Gobrecht also forced seven of the Hawks' 29 turnovers.
Junior goalie
Scott Sidnam made four saves in the win. Sophomore
Jack Deragon also saw time in goal, making three saves for Ithaca.
Ithaca led Hartwick 58-20 in shots and held a decisive edge of 56 groundballs to Hawks' 36. The Bombers controlled the X, winning 27-of-34 face-offs. Ithaca was successful on 15-of-17 clear attempts.
ST. JOHN FISHER v ALFRED
The St. Fisher College men's lacrosse team won a pivotal Empire 8 Conference showdown on Saturday, earning a come-from-behind 10-7 win over visiting Alfred University at Fisher's Growney Stadium. Fisher trailed 7-3 at half, however the Cardinals held the Saxons scoreless over the final 30 minutes of play to mount the comeback.
With the win, Fisher improves to 9-5 overall and 4-2 in the Empire 8 while Alfred falls to 11-2, 4-2 respectively.
Fisher pulled to within two goals at 7-5 after three quarters of play.
Dante Giordano scored midway through the quarter and
Tim Wagner scored with just 17 seconds left to bring Fisher within striking distance to open up the fourth frame.
Fisher tied the game with two quick tallies in the first 1:51 of the fourth quarter.
Andrew Rossofound
Nick Rossi for a goal before Rossi connected with Giordano to tie the score at 7s.
Joe Gaug gave Fisher its first lead of the day with 12:05 left in the game on an unassisted goal.
The Cardinals added two more insurance goals at the hands of
Tim Wagner with assists credited to Rossi and Gaug. Wagner finished with three goals on the day.
Alfred opened up with the first five goals of the game over an 8:21 span.
Fisher drew to within 5-2 after the first quarter with goals from Rosso and
Michael Russell. It was Russell's first goal of the season.
Tanner Swan made six of his eight saves in the second half to earn his ninth win of the year.
Rossi led the way for Fisher with two goals and three assists. Giordano notched two goals while Gaug added a goal and two assists.
Paul Cefalu was 12-of-18 from the faceoff circle.
UTICA v ELMIRA
The Utica College men's lacrosse team scored the game's final seven goals to rally from a 6-2 deficit to earn a 9-6 Empire 8 Conference victory over host Elmira College on Saturday. Utica's
Zack Stevenson(Elbridge, NY/Jordan-Elbridge) and
Matthew Miller(Geneva, NY/Geneva) each netted three goals as the Pioneers snapped a five game skid and improved to 7-7 overall on the season.
The Pioneers trailed the Soaring Eagles 6-2 with 10:33 left in the third quarter until Miller sparked the rally with three unanswered goals in a span of 9:30 to make the score 6-5 with 13:09 left in regulation.
Utica's
Patrick Mulligan (Commack, NY/Commack) then tied the score up at 6-6 with 9:59 to go in the contest before Stevenson gave Utica the lead for good with two straight goals in a span of 3:30 to give UC an 8-6 lead with 6:04 left on the game clock.
Sean Behan (Dewitt, NY/Jamesville-Dewitt) added his first goal of the season with 5:19 left on the game clock to secure the Pioneers three-goal victory.
Mulligan finished the day with two goals for Utica while
Tyler Nicolaus (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy)added one assist.
Senior goalie
Andrew DiOrio (Greenlawn, NY/CW Post) stopped ten shots in the victory for Utica. Stevenson also won 14-of-18 face-offs and picked up five ground balls. Senior defender
Tom Byrne(Lancaster, NY/Lancaster) added a team-best six ground balls and caused two turnovers.
Liam Wheatley(Rochester, NY/Webster Schroeder) also chipped in with five ground balls for the Pioneers.
DiOrio is now tied for second on the College's all-time list with 14 career victories.
Elmira's Skyler Pradelski and Eric Hallman each posted two goals to lead the home team. Nick Brown led the Soaring Eagles with a game-high seven ground balls.
Utica outshot Elmira 43-25 on the day and the Pioneers also forced 30 turnovers in the victory.
HOUGHTON
Two records by Houghton sophomore Paul Chapman weren't enough to spell victory for the Highlanders, who lost a heartbreaking contest, 18-17, to Alfred State on Saturday.
The Pioneers scored three times over the game's final two minutes to get the one-goal win.
The visitors had to overcome Chapman's record-setting offensive performance. Chapman scored nine goals on the afternoon to break the school record and also broke the program record for goals in a season. His fifth tally of the game sent him past Tyler Kempney, who scored 36 in 2013. Chapman now has 41 goals on the season. Kempney also held the previous record for goals in a game with eight (2013 vs. Lyndon State).
Chapman put Houghton up early with two goals in the first two minutes, but the Pioneers answered with three-straight to take a 3-2 lead. The teams continued to battle goal for goal through the rest of the first quarter. The first 15 minutes ended tied at six.
Houghton looked to gain control in the second quarter, edging out to an 11-7 lead thanks to three more goals from Chapman and solo tallies from Justin Flint and Sean Daigler. The Highlanders took an 11-8 lead into halftime.
Goals from Chapman and Daigler gave the Highlanders a comfortable 13-8 lead midway through the third quarter, but the Pioneers battled back, outscoring Houghton 5-2 over the rest of the third. Chapman scored two more times in the quarter.
Down 15-13 to start the fourth, the Pioneers scored down a man in the first minute to pull within one, but Daigler scored to push the advantage back to two. The team's exchanged goals over the next two minutes, giving Houghton a 17-15 lead with 8:35 to go. The lead was still two with 2:04 left when the Pioneers mounted their late comeback. The visitors tied the game at 17 with 43 seconds to go and found the game-winner with just 21 ticks left on the clock.
Chapman finished with nine goals and two assists, Daigler added four goals and Flint contributed three goals and two assists.
After outshooting the Pioneers, 26-24, in the first half, the Highlanders were outshot, 40-9, over the game's final 30 minutes. The game could have been out of hand in favor of the Pioneers, if not for the play of Houghton keeper Josh Haingray. The senior keeper stopped 24 shots on the afternoon, including 20 in the second half.
Houghton lost 28 of 39 faceoffs and gained just 29 groundballs, compared to 43 for the Pioneers.
The Highlanders return to action for their final home game of the season on Wednesday, April 22 against Nazareth.