The Lakers recently spilt a pair of SUNYAC games, losing 13-3 against SUNY Cortland on Saturday before defeating Buffalo State 6-5 on Tuesday.
Lindsey Eggers and Emily Lange were clutch on Tuesday against Buffalo State, as they connected to score the winning goal with 1:19 left on the clock in the second half. Eggers found a streaking Lange off a free position to secure the win for the Lakers.
Erannan Shattuck helped Oswego State stave off multiple rallies from the Bengals by scoring three goals, all of them in the second half. Shattuck leads the team in overall scoring with 29 points and is tied for the team lead in goals with Lange – both have 16.
The game did not start out well for the Lakers. Buffalo State junior attacker Kendra Thomas kicked off the game’s scoring with a goal at the 24:56 mark of the first half. A little over a minute later, junior midfielder Meghan Farrell scored her 22nd goal of the season, with the assist Thomas picking up her 12th assist of the season.
Senior midfielder Candace Tarana got the Lakers on the board with her third goal of the year at the 17:17 mark, with Lange tallying the assist.
Senior midfielder Brittany Koelmel scored her fourth goal of the season with just over three minutes left in the first half to draw the Lakers even.
Shattuck’s three goals, plus a goal from Buffalo State’s Alexis Wilensky gave the Lakers a 5-3 advantage. The Bengals fought back though, as Thomas capped a three-point game with a goal at 9:59 of the second half.
Twenty-four seconds later, Buffalo State attacker Sarah Lorusso scored on a free possession to tie the game, setting the stage for Lange’s game-winning goal.
The dramatic win improved the Lakers record to 6-3, while Buffalo State fell to 7-4 on the season.
On Saturday, second-ranked Cortland defeated Oswego State, 11-3, off the strength of an eight-goal second half. Red Dragon sophomore midfielder and co-captain Tara Monaghan paced the team in goals, scoring three, all of which came in the second half.
Sophomore attacker Erica Geremia had more points than the entire Laker team, with five (1 G, 4 A). Geremia leads the Red Dragons in scoring with 24 goals while recording 48 points on the season.
The Lakers kept themselves in the game during the first half against nationally-ranked Cortland. The Red Dragons, who are averaging over 17 goals per game, only managed to put three behind Laker’s senior goalkeeper Nikki Greco in the first half.
“We played our game,” head coach Brandi Lusk said, referring to her team’s first half performance. “[Nikki Greco] had phenomenal saves and we were just playing smart.”
Kristen Ohberg led off the scoring for the game at 27:08 with her 14th goal of the season for the Red Dragons.
Senior midfielders Mackenzie Kjerstad and Brittany Koelmel scored for the Lakers to give them a 2-1 lead before Geremia scored to tie it.
Oswego State sophomore and co-captain Esther Gabriel scored her 14th goal, which was unassisted, at the 4:24 mark to give the Lakers their last lead of the game at 3-2.
The Red Dragons took control of the game, scoring the final nine goals of the contest. Lusk said the Lakers simply did not play their game in the second half.
“We sent them to the line way too many times,” Lusk said. “We gave them too many meter shots. You can’t send a team like that, the second team in the nation, to the line.”
Marilyn Farrell started the second half barrage for Cortland. Farrell got free and made a cut across Greco’s net after the Lakers shifted the defense to the right side of the cage. She flagged down a pass from Ohberg and buried it past Greco.
In the 10 minutes that followed, Cortland scored four goals, three of them coming from the stick of Monaghan, en route to the win.
Cortland head coach Kathy Taylor said she was impressed by the Lakers’ performance in the first half and admitted that her team was forced to make adjustments.
“I got to give a lot of credit to Oswego,” Taylor said. “This is the best Oswego team I ever remember playing. They were winning draws and being really stingy. Their goalie played very well. So what we tried to do was make our offense a little bit bigger and more dynamic. Instead of dodging, we started looking for more assisting sets.”
Cortland had the upper hand in almost every statistical category. The Red Dragons collected 11 more ground balls (25-14), won more draws (9-6) and turned the ball over only 14 times compared to the Lakers’ 21.
After the loss, Lusk said she was confident in her team’s ability to bounce back against Buffalo State.
“If we play like we did today,” Lusk said. “We’ll do great.”
The Lakers will continue SUNYAC play on the road at SUNY Potsdam on Tuesday and at eighth-ranked SUNY Geneseo Thursday.
