The SUNY Brockport men’s lacrosse team cruised to a 17-6 home victory in their season opener Wednesday, March 2 against Morrisville State. Senior midfielder Jack Peterson led the way for the Golden Eagles with a career-high five goals.
After the game, graduate student and captain Max Riley spoke on the importance of season openers.
“The first game is so important in my eyes. It can be a huge momentum swinger going into the season or it can be an eye-opener,” Riley said. “Luckily for us, we were able to come out and play to the level we know we are at. We will be facing a lot of great teams this season and we need to play every game as if it was the championship. Today, we did just that and came out with a great victory.”
The Green and Gold struck first against the Morrisville Mustangs, Peterson scored his first goal in the opening minutes coming off an assist from senior long stick midfielder Aidan Fitzgerald. However, it didn’t take long for Morrisville to respond and tie the game up with 12 minutes remaining in the first period. Yet, just 20 seconds later Fitzgerald scored an unassisted goal giving Brockport the lead for the remainder of the game. Own Vanwie added on back-to-back unassisted goals before another Morrisville player scored giving Brockport a 4-2 lead heading into the second quarter.
The Golden Eagles scored the next three goals to open the second period. Morrisville responded with one goal midway through the quarter, but Patrick Sheridan and Peterson scored again giving Brockport a 9-3 advantage going into the second half.
Riley said the team struggled scoring last year and fixing that was a priority in the off-season.
“As a team we have struggled the past few seasons scoring double-digit goals. I think it’s something that has held us back, so we were determined to make a change this season,” Riley said. “Many players started to work as one collective group instead of individuals which proved to be dominant. We moved the ball well, we played smart and we were unselfish. The scoreboard showed that.”
The second half wasn’t any closer. Brockport tied the third quarter 2-2 and won the fourth 6-1 to earn the 17-6 victory. Peterson led the team with six points, Sheridan was second with five points and Nelson Logan was third with two goals and two assists. John Felice had 13 stops at goalie before coming out for Cameron Kuzniar who made two stops.
Even with the win, the team isn’t satisfied and knows there are still improvements to be made.
“As our competition will only improve the rest of the season, we look to work on tightening up small details or issues that we noticed this first game,” Riley said. “Some team defense issues, communication on offense, and hopefully our number of penalties. Each day we look to get better, and hopefully that will show the remainder of the season.”
Brockport improves to 1-0 this season, they’ll host SUNY-Delhi Saturday, March 5 at 2 p.m.
