NEW PALTZ, N.Y. -- The Oneonta men's lacrosse team scorched New Paltz on the road, 24-4, to pick up their third SUNYAC win of the season, Wednesday afternoon. The Red Dragons controlled the full 60 minutes, building a 12-goal lead by halftime then they kept the Hawks scoreless the whole second half while totaling another eight goals. It is the sixth time in program history that Oneonta has scored at least 24 goals in a game, with the last happening last season against Utica. Oneonta had 12 different players find the back of the net in the win as the team improved to 6-6 this season, 3-0 in the SUNYAC, and New Paltz dropped to 3-8 overall, 1-3 in conference play.
"Today was a good team win, certainly very happy with both halves," said Head Coach
Pete Owens. "There are always things to improve on though, and that will be our focus."
The Red Dragons were led by senior
Jamie O'Neil (Bath, N.Y./Haverling) and junior
Thomas Hnis (Smithtown, N.Y./Kings Park), who both finished with eight points. O'Neil scored five goals with three assists and became the program's all-time leader in career points, while Hnis recorded seven goals with an assist and scored his 200th career point.
O'Neil surpassed the previous program record of 276 points set by Brian Dooley '00. The senior has totaled 167 goals, which is a program record, and 115 assists for 282 points so far in his career. O'Neil is currently 16 assists away from breaking the career assist record of 130, which was set by Dooley.
Hnis became the fifth player in program history to record at least 200 career points. He is currently third in program history with 152 career goals and is fifth in career points with 201.
In the conference win over the Hawks, senior
Daniel Macchiarella (Guilderland, N.Y./Guilderland) finished with a goal and two assists for three points. Junior
Aidan Boyle (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown) and sophomore
Cody Sharp (Ballston Lake, N.Y./Burnt Hills Ballston Lake) each scored twice for two points, while sophomore
Sean Grimes (Croton-on-Hudson, N.Y./Croton Harmon) recorded a goal and an assist. Grimes, and freshmen
Nick Martin (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa) and
Shane Mueller (Pleasantville, NY/Pleasantville), all scored their first collegiate goals.
Oneonta scored the first five goals of the game and went on to take a 10-1 lead at the end of the opening quarter. Hnis led the charge with three goals and an assist, while O'Neil scored twice with an assist. O'Neil's record-setting point occurred at 9:28 in the quarter, when he scored his second goal of the game after recovering a ground ball from his first shot attempt that was blocked and fired it back into the open net.
Senior
Shakim Carr (Brooklyn, N.Y./John Dewey) tallied his fifth goal of the season at 8:55 in the opening period before Boyle scored his first in the game. Junior
Finn Morris (Long Beach, N.Y./Long Beach) netted his eighth goal of the year, then sophomore
Riley Royals (New Hyde Park, NY/Herricks) scored his 11th goal of his inaugural season at Oneonta. Macchiarella recorded his sixth goal this season, and 30 seconds later found Hnis to give the Red Dragons a nine-point lead.
Boyle scored his 15th goal of the season on an extra-man opportunity to start the second period. The Hawks scored their second goal of the game at 11:38, then the Red Dragons answered with five straight goals to go up 16-2 with 5:08 left in the half. Sharp and Hnis each scored twice during the stretch, while O'Neil capped it off with his third of the day. New Paltz recorded the final two goals of the period to enter halftime trailing, 16-4.
New Paltz's late goals in the second quarter were their final scores of the game as Oneonta shut them out in the second half while they scored eight more goals for the 24-4 final. Hnis scored his 200th career point at the start of the third quarter with an assist from O'Neil. The junior attackman then scored his 50th goal of the season 11 seconds later off a pass from Grimes for his first career point. Grimes won the ensuing faceoff, collected the ground ball, and sprinted into the attack zone for a direct shot on the net to score his first career goal at 14:30 in the third. Before the third quarter ended, O'Neil totaled his 24th and 25th goals this season to put Oneonta up 21-4 heading into the fourth.
Freshman
Matt Sellitto (Smithtown, NY/Hauppauge) fired in his second goal of the season with 8:03 left to play, then Mueller and Martin scored their first career goals in the final three minutes. Mueller had the ball at the top of the attack zone when he ran past his defender towards the center of the zone and bounced his shot past the keeper while falling to the turf. Martin had the ball on the lower left side of the attack zone with a defender heavily guarding him when he spun away from the Hawk to create space and rifled it past the goalie for the final score of the game.
Sophomore
Mark Restivo (Merrick, NY/Sanford H. Calhoun) started in goal for the first 30 minutes and recorded five saves for a .556 save percentage. Senior
Ryan Collins (Oceanside, NY/Oceanside) was in goal for the third quarter and made one save, and junior
Ben Thayer (South Setauket, N.Y./Ward Melville) played the final 15 minutes and totaled three saves. Junior
Ryan Lussier (Burnt Hills, N.Y./Burnt Hills Ballston Lake) gathered six ground balls, and senior
Sergio Ilario (Holbrook, N.Y./Sachem North) had three ground balls.
Oneonta was dominant on faceoffs and won 27 of 31. Junior
Nathan Nurse (Brooklyn, N.Y./Uncommon Collegiate Charter) won 13 of 14 faceoffs and collected five ground balls. Grimes was 11-for-12 and picked up six ground balls, and senior
Tyler Carroll (Niskayuna, N.Y./Niskayuna) was 3-for-5 on faceoffs with two ground balls.
Oneonta outshot New Paltz 60-26 in total shots, 36-13 in shots on net, and finished with a 37-15 advantage in ground balls. The Red Dragons were 22-for-24 on clear attempts and 2-for-3 on extra-man opportunities, while the Hawks were 23-for-25 on clears, and 0-for-1 on the man-up.
Oneonta is back home for their next game, which is against Cortland in the Battle of the Red Dragons on Saturday, April 10, at 1 pm on Red Dragon Field.
