The Oswego State men’s lacrosse team had two matchups, the first of which was against their SUNYAC rival, the Plattsburgh State Cardinals. The second one was on April 17 against the Nazareth University Golden Flyers.
In the first game, the Lakers kicked off the first quarter with a shot from Hayden Coney. However, a Cardinal offensive onslaught ensued. The Cardinals went four minutes, blasting shot after shot, but goalie Seamus Hand was able to defend every one of them. After this, the teams traded blow after blow, neither goalie allowing a score. This was until Coney finally found the net on the third shot, giving the Lakers a 1-0 lead. The last three minutes of the first resulted in no scores for either team as the Lakers led heading into the second quarter.
The Cardinals wasted no time tying the score, as within 90 seconds they found the net to tie it up 1-1. However, after an offside penalty gave the Lakers an extra-man opportunity, they found the net again and capitalized, as Sexton brought the score to 2-1. A minute later, Emmett Starowizc blasted a shot at the net to give the Lakers a 3-1 lead. A minute after this, Owen Spearing was assessed an illegal body check and allowed the Cardinals to bring the score to 3-2 on a man-up opportunity. A repeat of the first quarter happened, as the last three minutes had no scores, the Lakers leading heading into the third.
The third quarter had the Lakers offense at their best, as they rattled off three scores in five minutes from Aspinall, Corey O’Connor and Starowizc to give the Lakers a 6-2 lead. Four minutes later, O’Connor found the net and had the Lakers up 7-2 as the Cardinals’ doors to victory were closing rapidly. However, the Cardinals started to crawl back, as they scored three times in the final five minutes of the third quarter. The Lakers still led 7-5 heading into the fourth quarter.
Sexton put the Lakers on the board first for the fourth quarter as he found the net in the first three minutes of the period, giving the Lakers some breathing room with an 8-5 lead. The Cardinals were not giving up though, as they got the score to 8-6 with just under nine minutes remaining. This only seemed to anger the Lakers, as they rattled off four unanswered scores to finish off the Cardinals, in a much closer game than the score said, at 12-6.
The next matchup was against the Golden Flyers and the first quarter was not good for the Lakers as Nazareth put up two unanswered goals and led 2-0 heading into the second.
This 2-0 lead quickly became 3-0 as the Flyers found the net early in the second quarter. Rob Nelson responded and got the Lakers finally on the board, the score becoming 3-1 with just over nine minutes remaining. The Lakers’ defense dug themselves into a massive hole following this, as the Flyers rattled off three straight goals in two minutes to make it 6-1. However, in the final four minutes, the Lakers were able to climb their way out of it. It started with an Aspinall goal, then Sexton responded with a goal of his own a minute later. Then, Jackson Cummings and O’Connor blasted off two goals within 30 seconds, but the Flyers still led 6-5 heading into the third quarter.
The Flyers quickly brought it to 7-5 early on in the third. It took almost six minutes for the Lakers to respond, but they did thanks to Max Brodmann to bring it to 7-6. However, Max Hahn was assessed an interference penalty and the Flyers capitalized on it to bring it to 8-6. In the final two minutes of the quarter, the Flyers scored again, making it 9-6 heading into the fourth.
The Lakers walked into the fourth quarter looking for a win and within ten seconds, they brought themselves closer to one, as Brodmann found the net to bring it to 9-7. The score quickly became 10-7 from a Flyers score, but the Lakers responded with three unanswered scores in three minutes to make it a tie game at 10-10. Two minutes later, the Flyers still nudged themselves ahead, making it 11-0. However, Sexton completely took the game over and scored two goals in under 20 seconds to put the Lakers ahead to give them their first lead of the game at 12-11. The Flyers kept responding, as they tied the game up with just under four minutes remaining. Sexton tried two more shots, but miraculously in the final second of the game. He finally found the net on his third attempt, giving the Lakers the upset win 13-12.
The red-hot 9-3 Lakers head to SUNY Geneseo to face the Knights on April 20.
Photo by: Oswego Athletics
