OSWEGO, N.Y. -- The Oneonta men's lacrosse team redeemed themselves from their regular season contest and defeated Oswego, 12-8, on the road in the SUNYAC semifinals Wednesday afternoon. The Red Dragons never trailed in the game as they weathered a Laker rally in the third quarter with four goals in the final period for the win. The victory advanced Oneonta to the conference championship for the first time since 2002 and they will face Cortland for the SUNYAC title on Saturday, May 3, at 1 pm.
Junior
Jamie O'Neil (Bath, N.Y./Haverling) led the team with three goals and three assists for six points, while sophomore
Thomas Hnis (Smithtown, N.Y./Kings Park) recorded four points off two goals and two assists. Graduate student
Matthew Krieg (Port Jefferson Station/Comsewogue) finished with a goal and two assists and senior
Vincent Tirino (Port Jefferson Station/Comsewogue) netted a pair of goals.
Oneonta jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first three minutes of play with both goals assisted by O'Neil. The junior passed it to Hnis, who five-holed the Oswego goalie, for the first goal at 13:22. Less than a minute later, junior
Daniel Macchiarella (Guilderland, N.Y./Guilderland) got out of his defender's sight for a second to receive the ball at the top of the zone for a shot into the lower left corner of the net. With just under three minutes left in the period, Krieg got the ball behind the net and quickly sent it back out to Tirino for another five-hole goal that put the Red Dragons up 3-1.
The teams traded two goals with each other in the second period for Oneonta to go into the half ahead 5-3. Sophomore
Finn Morris (Long Beach, N.Y./Long Beach) restarted play behind the net and passed it out to senior
Vincent Herbstman (Port Jefferson Station/Comsewogue) while he was cutting towards the net for the goal. The Red Dragon offense continued to have great ball movement and eventually found O'Neil who overpowered his defender for his first goal of the game.
Oneonta started to build momentum and scored three straight in the beginning of the third period to take an 8-3 lead at 8:24. Krieg brought the ball back into play, outpaced his defender for some space, and wrapped around the net for the first score. Hnis then assisted O'Neil and Tirino on the next two goals and forced an Oswego timeout. Out of the timeout, the Lakers put together a stretch of four unanswered goals to close out the third quarter down one, 8-7.
Freshman
Tim Navin () ended the Oswego run to put Oneonta back up two with 13:59 to play. Navin received the ball up top, faked a shot to get his defender to react, then spun around him to fire a shot past the keeper, Seamus Hand. The Lakers cut the deficit back to one with 11:52 remaining, however the Red Dragons closed out the game with three goals for the 12-8 final. Oneonta was on a man-up when O'Neil faked a handoff to Macchiarella and instead sent it down to Hnis for an open shot. With 6:13 to play, Krieg was at the X position with the ball and passed it to O'Neil for his hat trick with another five-hole goal, then senior
Anthony Munro (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) put the exclamation point on the victory with an unassisted goal with 2:31 left. Munro got the ball at midfield with seconds remaining on the shot clock and ripped one between a couple defenders from outside the attack zone for the goal.
Freshman
Mark Restivo (Merrick, N.Y./Sanford H. Calhoun) finished the game with 10 saves for a .556 save percentage. When the score was 9-8 with 10:00 left, before the Red Dragons tallied three to put the game away, the Lakers had an opportunity to tie the game with a wide-open shot off a break away, however Restivo made the clutch save. During the clear attempt after that momentum shifting stop, Oneonta was awarded a man-up opportunity that eventually led to Hnis' goal.
The Red Dragon defenders helped Restivo around the net by limiting the Lakers to only 18 shots on goal. Junior
Aidan Greene (Smithtown, N.Y./Smithtown West) caused the team-high two turnovers and picked up two ground balls. Graduate student
Andrew Guinto (Syracuse/West Genesee) and sophomore
David Trahan (Niskayuna, N.Y./Niskayuna) both caused a turnover and collected a ground ball. Seniors
Brett Deegan (Port Jefferson Station/Comsewogue),
Matthew Mangels (St. James/Smithtown East) and sophomore
Ryan Lussier (Burnt Hills, N.Y./Burnt Hills Ballston Lake) each had two ground balls. Senior
Stephen Barikyan (Tappan/Tappan Zee) won 10 faceoffs for the Red Dragons, and he co-led the game with six ground balls.
Gavin Elston led Oswego with three goals while Garrett Elston had two. The Lakers regular season scoring leader, Corey O'Connor, was limited to one goal with two turnovers. Hand finished with 15 saves for a .556 save percentage.
Oneonta outshot Oswego 43-37 overall, 27-18 on net, while Oswego held a 30-28 advantage in ground balls. The Red Dragons were 18-for-21 on clear attempts and 1-for-4 on the man-up, and the Lakers were 14-for-15 on clears and 0-for-2 on the extra man.
During the game, Barikyan and O'Neil both carved their names into the Red Dragon record books, while Hnis hit a career milestone. O'Neil broke the single season points record of 95 set by Matt Puerta in 2002. He currently has 98 points this season and has already shattered the all time single season assist record of 43 set by Puerta. Barikyan tied the single season ground ball record of 142 ground balls set by Dave Kilcourse in 2002. He has already broke multiple single season and single game records for ground balls and faceoffs won this season. As a sophomore, Hnis became the sixth Red Dragon to record 100 career goals.
Oneonta looks to win their first SUNYAC title this Saturday in Cortland at 1 pm.
