By Jack Perdek

Oswego State men’s lacrosse currently stands fourth in the SUNYAC conference with three games left to go on the 2022 schedule.

The Lakers, 8-3 overall and 3-1 in conference, are coming off their first loss in seven games at the sticks of SUNY Geneseo. The Knights and the Lakers squared off on April 15 in a 11-10 back and forth battle. Senior and second leading scorer for Oswego State Weston Gray was a key contributor to the team’s disappointing first conference loss. 

Gray mentioned that the one-goal loss could have gone either way and that with a couple more solid opportunities last week they could have ended up on top. 

“It’s always tough to know what to do in tight situations like that [the fourth quarter],” Gray said. “It comes down to who makes more mistakes and in the fourth quarter, we kind of made more mistakes on the attack and midfield wise. We could have had about three more possessions and who knows if we even got one of those back it’s 11-11.” 

The attack from Philadelphia, New York, has 25 goals and eight assists on the season proving to be a focal part of the Lakers’ offense. For Gray’s personal progress in his third season on the team, he says that he holds himself to high expectations to produce.

“Well, I shoot the ball well but I think I can shoot it better,” Gray said. “I set high standards, I hate missing, even if the shot is off the pipe I hate missing. So I think I can shoot better and I have been coming in early to work on it and shooting better.”

In order to ensure the team’s success in the final stretch of the regular season, a compliment to offensive efficiency is getting the ball up the field via the defense. Lacrosse inquires about par performances from goalies in the SUNYAC conference and Oswego State’s Aiden Kenyon knows the recipe for sharp play. The lead player in goal for the Lakers says that his defensive unit is looking very good at this point in the year.

“I think it’s looking great, I think we’re really communicating well,” Kenyon said. “Right now we’re kind of defining us and the way we want to play. We’re focusing on transition and being aggressive.”

In the SUNY Geneseo game, Kenyon had 17 saves on 11 goals allowed. The junior from Canandaigua, New York, has an 8.88 goals allowed average thus far and has been one of the best goalies in the conference this year statistically. Last time out against the Knights, Kenyon says there were things to fix but the outcome should not plague the team going forward. 

“Yeah I feel like it was definitely close for us, there was definitely a few mistakes that we can clean up,” Kenyon said. “Going forward we don’t really look at it as a bad loss we just look at it as a growing point where we can capitalize on those mistakes to fix up. 

Statistically speaking, Kenyon, Gray and the rest of the team are doing all of the right things on the field. They have more goals, faceoff wins, ground ball victories and faceoffs won than all of the teams they have played so far. The only thing holding Oswego State back has been clearing the ball out of the defensive zone [203-245] and penalties [72-53]. Head coach of Oswego State Sean Eccles attributed some of these stats to the reason the Lakers may have come out of the SUNY Geneseo game in the loss column. 

“I thought we cleared well, I thought at times we were a little sloppy after we got over the midfield line,” Eccles said. “We had a couple of turnovers in transition but ultimately we’re looking to play fast, we’re looking to be offensive. It is a matter of execution as opposed to just missing a shot here in there, missing a back-up here and there, so I would not say there is too much concern there.” 

Overall, the Lakers have an execution-based mindset along with a ‘one game at a time’ mentality. As the regular season stanza concludes, Oswego State has a date with SUNY Oneonta, SUNY Brockport and of course first place SUNY Cortland, with the latter two teams being the top two teams in the SUNYAC. The key to success from Eccles’ perspective is not to focus on the playoffs, but to take every time out with a grain of salt.

“We can expect three tough teams that want to beat us. Three tough teams that are playing for their lives, playing for seeding and playing for the playoffs,” Eccles said. “We’re doing the same things. I love that everyone in this conference is pretty much in the same boat and you gotta show up with the same attitude every time you play. The message right now is all about Oneonta, 100% percent of our focus is on Oneonta, preparing for them, preparing the way you want to play, and really just dictating on Saturday.” 

The Lakers have won the past four match-ups against the Oneonta Red Dragons and hope to keep the streak alive in what will prove to be a pivotal game in a playoff seeding scenario. In the event of a future home playoff berth, Kenyon as the backbone of the squad predicts that a couple of home games will be a daunting task for incoming players. 

“We have a huge advantage, especially in Oswego with the lake winds as strong as they are,” Kenyon said. “I feel like nobody’s used to those winds except for us playing in that wind every day.” 

Photos provided by Oswego State Athletics