After dropping its last game in a tightly contested matchup with Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute 8–7 on March 5, the Ithaca College men’s lacrosse team, ranked No. 18 in the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association, bounced back with a dominant win March 9 against SUNY Oswego 19–4.
Head coach Jeff Long said he credited the team’s previous loss as motivation to play well in this game, and that some of what the saw against the Engineers aided them in this win.
“Against RPI, we weren’t really able to play our game, so we wanted to use today to get back on track and I think we were able to do that. This will be a good way to go into spring break,” Long said. “On Saturday, RPI played a zone defense, and we didn’t handle it well, so we started practicing how to play against the zone and today they played a zone and we were able to score against it enough to make them switch to a man-to-man.”
Similar to their win against Lycoming College on March 1, the Blue and Gold hit the ground running in the first quarter scoring six goals, including four from junior attackman Jack Shumway, to take an early 6–0 lead. Sophomore attackman Jake Cotton also notched one goal and two assists in the first 15 minutes of play.
The second quarter was almost identical to the first, as the Bombers scored six more goals and once again prevented the Lakers from scoring any. Cotton netted another goal this quarter along with two from sophomore midfielder Stephen Morrell and senior defenseman Eli Gobrecht scored his second goal of the season on a full field sprint past the entire Oswego defense.
With the large lead, the South Hill squad slowed down in the second half as it allowed its first goal of the game when Luke Krizman scored on put past senior captain and goalie Scott Sidnam to put the Lakers on the board. The Bombers were also able to score four more goals in the third quarter, one of which came from Shumway for his fifth of the game.
The Bombers netted three more goals in the final quarter, scored by junior attackman Sean Ferrito, freshman attack Will Witter and freshman midfielder Owen Smith. The Lakers also scored three goals from freshman attackman Bobby Emerson, sophomore attackman Tom Herbert and sophomore midfielder Adam Burlew.
Junior captain John Januszkiewicz said that playing to their strengths was what allowed them to be successful offensively.
“We had really good ball movement and we played really fast and when we play fast we are hard to beat,” Januszkiewicz said.
One of the Bombers’ strengths was their ability to maintain possession of the ball. Whenever they were on offense and a missed shot, they went behind the goal to keep the possession alive. This prevented Oswego from playing much offense in this game because they were rarely in control of the ball.
Long said that having someone behind the goal is a necessity for his team to play successfully.
“We play a motion offense and based on our setup there’s always someone back there. Someone should always be there if we want to play well,” Long said.
The Blue and Gold will return to action in 7:30 March 15 in Tampa, Florida, when they take on Colorado College.
