The Oneonta State men's lacrosse team put themselves in the thick of the SUNYAC tournament race with its 15-10 win at home today versus Oswego. The Red Dragons, who were tied with the Lakers with a 1-3 record, now control its own destiny with one final game in the conference next Saturday at home against Brockport. A win for Oneonta (4-9/2-3 SNYAC) next week and they will clinch one of the four playoff spots while a loss may leave them out.
Today's game was over in the opening quarter as the Red Dragons took it to the Lakers with its most productive period of the season. Oneonta registered eight goals while holding Oswego scoreless in the opening 15 minutes of the contest. Junior John DeOrdio led the attack with all three of his goals for the game in the first quarter. Classmate Jimmy van de Veerdonk added two goals and an assist. Van de Veerdonk would finish the game with four goals and two assists.
Oswego (8-4/1-4 SUNYAC) mounted a comeback in the second period, but still trailed 10-4 at halftime. Four different Lakers scored in the period while Cody Hoose and Casey Balzer each had an assist. Hoose finished the game with a team high five points while Balzer added four points.
The two squads played even in the third period. Balzer led all scorers in the quarter with two goals and one assist.
Oneonta scored the first two goals of the fourth period to push its lead back to eight goals. The Lakers closed with the final three goals of the game, but the game was already in hand for the Red Dragons.
Oneonta won 23-of-29 face offs while holding a 46-31 shot advantage. Senior Chris Miles made seven saves in goal for Oneonta.
Oneonta will not be in action again until next Saturday when they host Brockport beginning at 2:30pm.
Oswego SCORING: GOALS: Cody Hoose 3; Casey Balzer 2; Connor Khammar 2; Matt Palmer 1; Connor Brown 1; Nick Gay 1.
ASSISTS: Casey Balzer 2; Cody Hoose 2; Matt Palmer 1.
Oneonta State SCORING: GOALS: Jim van de Veerdonk 4; John DeOrdio 3; Blair Hanson 3; Anthony Laureano 2; Daniel Stern 1; Joey Finnegan 1; Nick Sorrillo 1.
ASSISTS: Daniel Stern 3; Jim van de Veerdonk 2; John DeOrdio 1; Joey Finnegan 1; Alex Haffner 1.
