By Jack Perdek

The playing field for the Oswego State men’s lacrosse team grows smaller as the cut for the SUNYAC playoffs is on the line for their last regular-season game versus SUNY Brockport. 

Oswego State, 8-5 overall (3-3 conference), sit in the fourth spot in the conference after surrendering a game to the top-seeded SUNY Cortland. The Lakers and the Red Dragons squared off April 27 on the Laker turf in a 16-12 victory for the team in red and white. Oswego State’s Max Broadman was the leading scorer with four goals on the day.

Back and forth was the tone for the match-up between the two clubs. The second, third and fourth quarters all finished tied or within one goal on the score chart. SUNY Cortland’s success is partially due to their three unanswered scores in the first quarter in a five-minute run. It took the Lakers a while to get going with their rival, but head coach Sean Eccles believes the game could have gone either way.

“A couple of bounces here or there we’re in [a] 12-10 game,” Eccles said. “They just didn’t go our way when it mattered. Eventually, it kind of got out of reach.”

Eccles says that his team needed to shake off a little rust going into the rest of the game, and that shot selection could have been the cause of easy goals for SUNY Cortland.

“They got us a couple of times in transition,” Eccles said. “Our offense was clicking to start the game and I think a couple of bad shots here and there against a good team really jump-starts their offense for them. It’s a matter of shooting better shots, making tougher plays and I think once we settled in we shot a lot better, we played a little tougher and moved the ball faster.”

Two Lakers who are usually on the frontlines offensively for the Lakers include freshman Corey O’Conner and Liam Sexton. As a freshman, O’Conner holds the most assists on the team (18) and found the net against the Red Dragons. O’Conner says that the beginning of that game was a little off-setting and that over time the attack got back into a rhythm. 

“It was a little nerve-racking seeing them put in goals so quick,” O’Conner said. “But we held our heads and kept playing Lacrosse the way we usually do.”

Sophomore attack/mid Sexton attributed the early goings of Wednesday’s game as a key example of the way the game usually goes.

“Lacrosse is a streaky game, once they get three goals we can get them right back,” Sexton said. “We just gotta keep our heads in the game, keep running our systems.

Despite their efforts losing such a close game to a good opponent, O’Conner says the team felt good afterward staying neck-and-neck with such a talented team. After all, SUNY Cortland leads the SUNYAC in most statistical categories and has an undefeated 6-0 conference record this season. There are more pluses than minuses from O’Conner’s perspective.

“After last night’s game, it didn’t even feel like a loss,” O’Conner said.  “We all came in and got pumped up that people assume SUNY Oswego is going to get ran by Cortland, we were there the whole time and it was more like a show-where-we-are kind of game.”

With the clock ticking on making the playoffs for the Lakers, Friday’s game versus SUNY Brockport has the making of a wild finale. Eccles says the two teams are very alike and jokingly mentioned why green and gold versus green and gold might be a difficult task.

“Well they have the same colors as us so our players might get confused on who they’re passing to,” Eccles said. “Really they’re similar to us, they got some good defensemen that like to play aggressively, they got some fast middies that like to run, they got a good goalie and they have attackmen that like to spread the field. So I think across the board we’re pretty evenly matched up, it’s just gonna be who wants it a little more.”

In recent history, the Golden Eagles have had the Lakers’ number winning eight of the last nine games since 2014. Now with SUNY Brockport coming into town with post-season positioning on the line, every game counts. Sexton is not worrying though as he believes this Laker team can put on a show any given time they take the field.

“I think that we could beat anyone in the SUNYAC,” Sexton said. “Going into the last [regular-season] game of the year, we just got to go 100% and know that we could beat anyone.”

Wherever the Lakers end up in the next week, one thing remains true: they want to play their best brand of lacrosse.

“We’re just playing for a playoff spot,” Eccles said. “Home or away it doesn’t matter to us, we just got to do our job.”

Photo provided by Oswego State Athletics