College Sports

SUNY laxers pick up first ‘W’ of the season

WILLIAMSPORT, PA. — The SUNY Geneseo men’s lacrosse team rallied for its first win of the season, beating host Lycoming  11-9 Wednesday.

The Knights scored the game’s last seven goals after the Warriors had taken a 9-3 lead with just 17:52 left in regulation.

Geneseo’s rally started late in the third period on a goal by sophomore attack Andre Keating (Ithaca/Ithaca). Keating’s goal, the first of his two in the game, came with 1:11 left in the period and stopped a stretch of seven straight goals by Lycoming.

The fourth quarter was all Geneseo: the Knights scored on seven of their 11 shots and junior Ryan Zaremba (Bay Shore/Army Prep) – who entered the game at the start of the quarter – stopped three shots to keep the Warriors off the scoreboard. Geneseo’s man-down unit killed off two 30-second penalties, allowing only one shot during Lycoming’s two extra-man opportunities.

Sophomore attack Sam Thompson (Queensbury/Queensbury) scored a pair of fourth-quarter goals and assisted on Keating’s goal that closed out the scoring. Sophomore Steven Cregan (Rochester/Brighton) scored the tying goal with 4:08 left to play. Senior midfielder Tim Burgess (Syracuse/Westhill) won the ensuing face-off and 36 seconds later, first year Drew Huntington (Penfield/Penfield) notched the game-winner.

Burgess, who led the Knights with a career-high 10 ground balls, opened the fourth-quarter scoring blitz with his first goal of the season off an assist from Cregan.

Thompson finished with career-best totals of three goals and two assists. He assisted on the game’s opening score – the first career goal by first year midfielder Brad Willows (Queensbury/Queensbury) – and tied the game at 2-2 on a first-quarter goal with Cregan notching the assist.

Sophomore attack Steve Aziz (Jamesville/Jamesville/DeWitt) added a pair of goals, putting Geneseo up 3-2 early in the second quarter, then pulling the Knights to within a goal at the 7:36 mark of the fourth.

The Knights recorded their highest-scoring fourth quarter since a seven-goal fourth in a SUNYAC playoff game against Potsdam on May 4, 2011.

Cregan raised his career total to 51 points in his 16th game; he also picked up three ground balls.

Senior midfielder Jeff Dunworth (Katonah/John Jay) led the Knights with a career-best five caused turnovers, including a pair in the decisive fourth quarter. He picked up a personal-high six ground balls.

The Knights play a 1 p.m. game at #22 Nazareth Saturday.