Naz Clinches Top Seed; Prior Sets Single-Game Record; Stevens, Fisher and Ithaca Win
The Golden Flyers, ranked 15th in the most recent USILA poll, earned the top seed in the Empire 8 Tournament with a dominating win on Wednesday night.
Nazareth will host an Empire 8 semifinal contest on Wednesday, April 29th. The championship game is scheduled for Saturday, May 2nd. As the top seed, the Golden Flyers will host the championship game if they advance. Ithaca is currently in second with a 6-1 conference record, while St. John Fisher and Stevens each stand at 5-2. With help from other teams, Alfred (4-3) could also still reach the conference tournament. The final three tournment slots will be decided by games on Saturday, April 25.
|
SCHOOL |
CONF |
OVERALL |
|
Nazareth |
7-0 |
12-4 |
|
Ithaca |
6-1 |
11-4 |
|
St. John Fisher |
5-2 |
10-5 |
|
Stevens |
5-2 |
9-6 |
|
Alfred |
4-3 |
11-3 |
|
Hartwick |
2-5 |
3-9 |
|
Utica |
2-5 |
7-8 |
|
Elmira |
1-7 |
2-10 |
|
Houghton |
0-7 |
1-12 |
NAZARETH v HOUGHTON
Occasional rain, wind, and snow could not slow the Golden Flyers as fifteen players tallied at least one goal to lead visiting Nazareth to a dominant 29-0 victory over Houghton in an Empire 8 Conference lacrosse game Wednesday evening. The Golden Flyers scored 21 times in the opening half to take command. Juniors
Luke Wooters and
Troy Haefele each had five points to lead the offense, and goalies
Michael Cuciti,
Scott Brown, and
Rick Kronenwett combined to make six saves for the shutout.
With the starters seeing roughly 19 minutes of action, many additional players had the opportunity to make contributions at the offensive and defensive ends of the field. Freshman
Gavin Shaner had a pair of goals, the first of his career, and classmates
Jonathan Olbrich,
Ben Bickford,
Derek Andrews,
Jason Partridge, and
Gavin Shaner also scored their first goal as a Golden Flyer. Freshman
Nick Rodin added two goals to give him three on the season.
Nazareth also received three goals from freshman
Paul Walter, which gives him nine on the season. Senior
Kyle Fanning, junior
Matt O'Neill, and freshman
Jacob Gray all scored twice, and sophomores
Hunter Burdick and
Nick Arnold both added one goal.
In their limited time on the field, Wooters had a game-high four scores and added an assist, while Haefele tallied two goals and three assists. Senior
Will Fallo, the third member of the Golden Flyers' starting attack unit, recorded four points on three goals and one assist.
On the defensive side of the field, Rodin,
Keanan O'Brien, and Lai combined to cause seven turnovers. As a team, Nazareth recorded 17 caused turnovers. Houghton had 15 additional unforced turnovers.
In the first half, the Golden Flyers mixed attacking and slower offense to provide them with the large advantage. On many of the Highlanders' clearing attempts, Nazareth forced turnovers to lead to scoring opportunities in transition. At his attack position, Wooters forced three turnovers. Houghton was successful on only 9-26 clear attempts.
Cuciti earned the victory with three saves as he played the first quarter in Nazareth's net. Brown had one save in 15 minutes of action, and Kronenwett had two saves in 30 minutes between the Golden Flyers' pipes.
Nazareth had a dominant advantage in total shots, 57-12, despite taking only 18 in the second half. The Golden Flyers also had overwhelming advantages in ground balls collected (50-13) and faceoffs (26-7). Senior
Drew Simoneau won 12-14 faceoff attempts in his limited playing time. Simoneau entered the week ranked third in Division III in faceoff winning percentage at .699. Shaner finished 12-17 on faceoffs, and
Vincent Loscalzo and Partridge each won their lone faceoff attempt.
STEVENS v ELMIRA
Stevens junior
Matt Ferentini scored a career high six goals Wednesday in the team's 15-4 Empire 8 Conference road win against Elmira College.
The win moved Stevens to 9-6 (5-2) while Elmira fell to 2-10 (1-7).
Ferentini also added four groundballs while sophomore
Tim Leahey scored three goals to go along three ground balls. On the defense, sophomores
Chris Contino and
Jan Schoonen combined for seven caused turnovers. Junior
Brett Incollingo went 17-23 in face-offs.
The Ducks dominated with 77 shots to Elmira's 20 while forcing 33 turnovers. Stevens was also nearly flawless on clears, going 23-24, and dominated in ground balls, 74-28.
Elmira jumped out to the early 2-0 lead eight minutes into the opening quarter before senior
Michael Maroon ended the run with a man-up goal with just under seven minutes to go in the quarter. Ferentini continued the run with a score five minutes later, continuing a 7-0 run that put the Ducks up 7-2 heading into the break.
Schoonen extended the lead to six in the opening minutes of the second quarter, followed by goals from Ferentini and junior
Michael Serrante to put Stevens up 10-2.
The lead ballooned to 12 before sophomore
Ryan Giordano capped the Ducks scoring for the day with an unassisted goal early in the fourth. Elmira ended the game with a pair of goals, but the damage was already done as the Ducks defense held them off the scoreboard over the final three minutes.
Cameron Prior '17 set a new EC single-game record in saves with 38, surpassing the previous record of 35 set by Tom Depape '95 on May 8th, 1993.
ITHACA v ALFRED
The Ithaca College men's lacrosse team defeated Alfred 19-9
on Wednesday, April 22, in their final regular season game at Higgins Stadium. The Bombers are now 6-1 in the conference and 11-4 overall. Alfred falls to 4-3 in the Empire 8
and 11-3 on the season.
The Bombers dominated game play by winning 18-of-29 face-offs and forcing 10 Alfred turnovers. Senior
Matt Greenblatt won 16-of-24 challenges at the X.
Freshman
Stephen Morrell activated Ithaca's offense by converting on a pass from sophomore
John Januszkiewicz at 12:44 in the first quarter, giving the Bombers a 1-0 lead. After three minutes, Alfred tied the game at 1. Sophomore
Jack Shumway then recorded two assists on back-to-back goals made by seniors
Steve Danylyshyn and Greenblatt, to put Ithaca up 3-1. The Saxons registered one more goal before the end of the quarter. Ithaca snuck two more past Alfred, extending the lead 5-2.
Ithaca recorded five goals in the second quarter to Alfred's three. The Bombers led 10-5 at the half.
The Saxons were the first team to score in the third quarter, putting one in the back of Ithaca's net at 12:47. The Bombers then countered with six unanswered goals in seven minutes. Alfred scored with 20 seconds left in the third quarter. Ithaca's
Grant Osadchey finished a pass from
James Manilla with four seconds left, sending the Bomber's into the final frame with a 17-7 advantage.
Each team scored twice more in the fourth quarter, marking the final score 19-9 in Ithaca's favor.
Danylyshyn led the Bombers with a career-high five goals. Shumway earned a team best six points, on two goals and four assists. Freshman
Jake Cotton and Januszkiewicz each had two goals and three assists against the Saxons. Junior
Michael Walker and Morrell also had two goals on the day.
Manilla tallied a team-high four assists and added a goal for Ithaca, while freshman
Kaelan Fitzpatrick added an assist to the offense as well. Greenblatt, Osadchey and
Justin Bird all recorded a goal against Alfred.
Greenblatt led Ithaca with 10 groundballs. Junior
Eli Gobrecht scooped eight groundballs and recorded four casued turnovers on defense.
Junior Goalie
Scott Sidnam made seven saves in the conference win.
Ithaca led Alfred 39-27 in shots and edged the Saxons 43-to-32 in groundballs. The Bombers were successful on 13-of-15 clear attempts.
ST. JOHN FISHER v UTICA
The St. John Fisher College men's lacrosse team defeated host Utica College 15-8 on Wednesday to record five-straight wins. The Cardinals are now 10-5 overall and 5-2 in Empire 8 Conference competition.
Fisher jumped out to a 4-0 lead through the first 10 minutes of the game, but Utica would squeeze in two goals to close the opening quarter with the Cardinals leading 4-2.
The second quarter featured five Fisher notches and just one for the Pioneers, giving the Cardinals a 9-3 lead at halftime.
The Pioneers got as close as three goals when Matthew Miller scored Utica's ninth goal of the day with 9:28 left in the third quarter. Those three goals would be as close as the Pioneers would get, though.
Matthew Condon recorded three goals of Fisher's four goals in the third quarter to help solidify the win.
Gary Bova finished with a team-high six points on three goals and three assists. Condon and
Nick Rossi also put together three goals apiece, while Matt Colicciha added a team-high four goals.
Paul Cefalu went 12-for-20 at faceoff with five ground balls.
Tanner Swan earned the win in net, recording five saves. He improves to 10-4 overall.
Oneonta v HARTWICK
Hartwick fell on the road to cross-city rival SUNY Oneonta on Wednesday by a final count of 15-7. The Red Dragons used a nine-goal run in the second and third quarters to pull away for the win.
Matt McCallan led the 'Wick offense with a pair of goals and an assist.
Roy Simmons chipped in with two goals and
Cody Petillo contributed a goal and one helper.
Oneonta scored twice in the first 1:42 for a quick two-goal lead.
Evan Petillo scored for the Hawks with 7:52 left in the first to trim the margin to one, but the Red Dragons added two scores 41 seconds apart to up their lead to 4-1. They added their fifth before Simmons registered his 13
th of the season for a 5-2 Hartwick deficit after 15 minutes.
Oneonta scored all three goals in the second period for an 8-2 advantage at halftime. The hosts would score the first six goals of the third period to open up the game.
Hartwick finished the night with five of the last six goals. Simmons scored from McCallan to close the third quarter.
Sean Brown then set up McCallan to open the fourth quarter.
Cody Petillo,
David Bianculli, and McCallan ended the day's scoring with under three and a half minutes to go in the contest.
Connor Hudson and
Tanner Patterson earned the team-high in ground balls for the Hawks with four apiece.
Mike Rourke played all sixty minutes in the Hawks' cage. He made a season-high 17 saves.