Alfred Wins Big; Naz Falls to #2 RIT
ALFRED
The Alfred University men's lacrosse team earned a 21-1 win over non-conference foe, Medaille College Tuesday evening in its first of a five-game road series to end the season.
Tanner Morse (Corning, NY/Corning East) paced the Saxons with six points from five goals and an assist.
Jake Lynch (Whitney Point, NY/Whitney Point) had three of the Saxons' (10-1, 3-1 Empire 8) 13 assist and added two goals for a team-second in points of five. Nicolas wood (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua) recorded a hat-trick off of 10 shots and added a helper on the evening.
The Saxons kept the Mavericks (2-4, 1-2 NEAC) scoreless for the entire first half while scoring 14 goals themselves despite not lighting up the scoreboard until
John Winchell (Vestal, NY/Vestal) passed to
Derek Bishopp (Livonia, NY/Livonia) for AU's first goal at the 6:25 mark in the first quarter.
More than half of the Saxons' first half goals were assisted, demonstrating teamwork as nine different players scored and five different players assisted.
The only Medaille goal came at 13:12 in the third quarter from David Groves and was assisted by Lavonte Lee. Alfred University responded and ended the game with a six-goal run that saw two of Morse's goals and three Lynch assists.
Jimmy Pratti (Minisink, NY/Minisink Valley) was near-perfect on faceoffs, winning 16-of-19 while
David LaSpina (Webster, NY/Webster Schroeder) won his solo attempt at the mid line and
Jack McKeever (Centerreach, NY/Newfield) winning 3-of-5 as well. Pratti also led the game in ground balls with 12 and caused one turnover.
Drew Gardner (Whitney Point, NY/Whitney Point) had the Saxons' only save in goal.
Both teams were tied in the caused turnover category with four each.
The Saxons held a distinct advantage in terms of keeping their guys on the field as only one 30-second penalty was committed by the Road Warriors. The hosts had six penalties that totaled three minutes and gave Alfred the opportunity to cash in with two man-up goals.
The Saxons outshot the Mavs 58-7 (32-2 on goal) and had another strong showing in picking up the loose balls as they out-gathered Medaille 41-25 in ground balls.
NAZARETH
After junior
Troy Haefele pulled visiting Nazareth to within two goals, 11-9, only 3:33 into the fourth quarter, RIT answered with three consecutive goals in less than five minutes to pull away from the Golden Flyers on Tuesday afternoon. The Tigers went on to defeat Nazareth 15-10 victory in the non-conference men's lacrosse game. Haefele finished with a team-high three goals.
With the loss, second-ranked RIT snaps 19th-ranked Nazareth's seven-game winning streak and drops the Golden Flyers to 9-3 overall. With the victory, the Tigers remain undefeated and improve to 12-0 overall. The Golden Flyers' other two losses have been by one goal.
After allowing the Tigers a four-goal lead in the first quarter, the Golden Flyers answered with three scores in a row in under four minutes to pull within one goal with 2:41 to play in the period. Haefele, who leads Nazareth with 30 goals, put the Golden Flyers on the board after receiving a pass from classmate
Luke Wooters. Less than two minutes later, Wooters recorded an unassisted goal, which was his 25th of the season. Wooters found sophomore
Hunter Burdick, who buried his seventh goal of the season to cap Nazareth's run.
Before the end of the first period, however, RIT's Matt Hossack and Allister Warren had a goal apiece to give the Tigers a 6-3 lead at the end of the first.
After the teams combined for nine goals in the opening 15 minutes,
Will Fallo scored the only goal of the second quarter. The senior's scoring chance was set up by Wooters with just over a minute to play in the half. The second period marked the first time this season that RIT has been held without a goal for a full quarter. Nazareth's defense held the Tigers without a goal for nearly 18 straight minutes. RIT entered the week ranked first in Division III in scoring with an average of 17.55 goals per game.
After senior
Drew Simoneau won the faceoff to start the third quarter, sophomore
Luke Longo scored an unassisted goal only 14 seconds into the period. Longo's goal cut Nazareth's deficit to 6-5. The potent Tigers's offense responded with a 5-0 scoring run in only 5:26 to stretch RIT's advantage to six goals, which was its largest of the game.
Following the Tigers' scoring run, the Golden Flyers pulled themselves back into the contest with four consecutive goals to bring them to within 11-9 in the opening minutes of the fourth. Sophomore
Nick Arnold started the offense with an unassisted goal with 5:21 to play in the third. Junior
Matt O'Neill converted a man-up opportunity after collecting a pass from Fallo to cut RIT's lead to 11-7 with just over two minutes left in the third. Haefele opened the fourth with consecutive goals in a span of 1:09 to bring Nazareth to within two scores of tying the game. Both of Haefele's goals came on man-up opportunities after RIT's goalie Pat Johnston was whistled for an illegal check. Jarryd Lee replaced Johnston between the Tigers' pipes. Wooters earned the assist on the first, and Fallo collected the assist on the second.
RIT's Aquin and Kyle Sterzin combined for the next three goals to add to the Tigers' lead. With 3:33 to play in regulation, senior
Matt McDermott converted Nazareth's third man-up chance of the quarter to cut the Golden Flyers' deficit to 14-10.
RIT surged to the 4-0 lead in the opening 7:56 of Tuesday's game. Eddie Kiesa, entering the contest ranked third on the team in goals and total points, tallied the first two goals. Aquin and Dan LoBosco each added another goal in a 42-second span.
Sophomore
Michael Cuciti recorded a career-high 12 saves in the loss. Johnston earned the victory with 11 saves.
Both teams tallied 34 total shots. RIT had a 34-26 advantage in ground balls collected, and the Tigers' defense forced 14 Nazareth turnovers. The Golden Flyers allowed RIT only three man-up chances and held the Tigers scoreless on them. Nazareth finished 4-11 on man-up chances.
With Simoneau's dominance on faceoffs, Nazareth finished with a 20-9 advantage in the category. Entering the contest, Simoneau ranked second nationally with a faceoff win percentage of .738. Additionally, Simoneau grabbed 13 ground balls to lead all players. Coming into the week's games, he ranked fifth in the nation in ground balls per game with an average of 9.0 per contest.