No. 4 Cortland Squeezes Past No. 9 Geneseo
from press release
CORTLAND, N.Y. – Junior Jay DiStefano
(Huntington/Harborfields) scored with 43 seconds remaining in the
game as the nationally fourth-ranked Cortland men's lacrosse team
erased a two-goal fourth-quarter deficit to earn a 4-3 win versus
ninth-ranked Geneseo in SUNYAC action Wednesday afternoon at the
SUNY Cortland Stadium Complex. The Red Dragons ran their winning
streak to seven straight games, improving to 8-2 overall and 2-0 in
the conference, while the Knights fell to 7-2 and 2-1.
DiStefano finished the game with two goals for Cortland. Junior
Brandon Misiaszek (New Hartford) recorded a goal and an assist,
sophomore Mike Tota (Webster/Webster Schroeder) scored once and
juniors Chris DeLuca (Sayville) and Justin Schneidman (Katonah/John
Jay-Cross River) each chipped in with an assist. Freshman goalie
Mike Kaminski (Sayville) made six saves.
Sophomore Brendan Kurpis (Yorktown) led Geneseo with two goals.
Junior Craig Lange (Syracuse/CBA) registered a goal and an assist,
and freshman Tim Hayden (Phoenix/Baldwinsville) collected an
assist. Senior goalie Dennis Costanza (Webster/Webster Schroeder)
turned aside 16 shots.
Geneseo opened the scoring with the only goal of the first quarter
as Lange assisted Kurpis' first score at six minutes, 49 seconds.
DiStefano tied the game off Misiaszek's assist at 11:26 of the
second quarter, but the Knights grabbed a 2-1 lead heading into
intermission on Kurpis' second goal at 1:38.
Hayden set up Lange's goal at 3:26 of the third and Geneseo carried
a 3-1 lead into the fourth quarter. Tota pulled the Red Dragons to
within 3-2 with a man-up goal at 14:20, and Misiaszek tied the game
at 5:42 to set up the wild finish. Each team had chances to break
the deadlock in the closing minutes, but Costanza denied Burke,
DeLuca and sophomore Jack Kennedy (Camillus/West Genesee), while
Kaminski turned aside sophomore Chris Adams' (Gansevoort/Saratoga)
bid.
After a Cortland turnover late in the game, Geneseo held possession
in its offensive end but Schneidman forced a turnover, recovered
the ground ball and raced upfield. He fired a pass to DiStefano who
buried a shot in the upper left corner for the game winner.
Cortland won the ensuing faceoff but stepped out of the box with
less than 20 seconds remaining to give possession to the Knights.
Geneseo raced the ball downfield but sophomore Jeff Watson's
(Camillus/Marcellus) forced shot at the buzzer rolled wide.
The game, however, wasn't over as the officials determined that the
clock wasn't properly stopped on the change of possession and
awarded the ball back to Geneseo behind the Cortland cage with
eight seconds on the clock. Junior Bobby King
(Huntington/Harborfields) worked against Schneidman one-on-one,
spun to the front of the goal but the ball was knocked loose and
the horn sounded.
