Ithaca Advances into 2nd Round of NCAA's
ITHACA, N.Y. —Junior
John Januszkiewicz matched his career-high with eight points and the nationally-ranked Ithaca College men's lacrosse team used a 13-0 second-quarter run to advance into the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament with a 24-7 win over Morrisville State Wednesday at Higgins Stadium.
Januszkiewicz scored five goals with three assists, classmate
Jack Shumway added four goals with two assists, and sophomore
Stephen Morrell scored a career-high five goals as No. 1 Ithaca (19-1) extended its school-record winning streak to 17 games.
Sophomore
Jake Cotton scored three goals with two assists, sophomore
Greg Drillock handed out three assists, and junior
Grant Osadchey collected seven groundballs and won 72.3 percent of faceoffs (16 of 22) as the Bombers advanced into the second round for the first time since 2014.
Ithaca will face Montclair State in a second-round game Saturday afternoon on the Ithaca campus.
Ithaca is ranked No. 1 in the country by both the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) and Nike/Lacrosse Magazine.
Senior
Michael Walker and junior
Austin Smith handed out two assists apiece, and senior All-American defender
Eli Gobrecht collected five groundballs, caused three turnovers, and scored one goal with one assist as IC set a season-high for goals in a game.
Ithaca, champions of the Empire 8 conference, entered play leading the nation in scoring offense (17.37 goals/game) scored 15 or more goals for the 19th time in 20 games.
Freshmen
Connor Hulme and
Scott Glowner each added two goals, while sophomore
David Drozjock had four groundballs and won 4 of 7 faceoffs in the win.
The Bombers enjoyed a 56-26 edge in shots and a 38-23 advantage in groundballs against the Mustangs (13-3), champions of the North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC).
Senior
Scott Sidnam made five saves and allowed two first-half goals in extending his record to 19-1.
Against the Mustangs, Ithaca raced out to a 3-0 lead as Cotton, Morrell, and Gobrecht each scored during a span of 4:07 to open the first-round game.
Morrisville State answered with back-to-back goals by Nick Geswaldo to pull within 3-2 with 8:31 remaining in the opening stanza.
The Bombers were held scoreless for the next eight minutes until Drillock found Shumway for a tally with 30 seconds remaining. That sparked Ithaca on a 16-0 run spanning the first, second, and third quarters.
Ithaca scored 13 second-quarter goals, led by Januszkiewicz (four goals), Shumway (three goals), Morrell (three goals), Cotton (two goals), and freshman
Conner Crosson (one goal).
The Bombers scored six times in the first 5:12 of the second to seize a 10-2 lead, and added seven goals over the final 6:30 of the quarter to take a 17-2 lead into halftime.
With the win, Ithaca, making its 13th appearance in NCAA's, improves to 11-12 all-time in NCAA tournament action.