The Golden Eagles lacrosse team defeated the Oneonta Red Dragons on the road last Saturday by a score of 9-3. Despite Oneonta scoring the first goal of the game, senior Patrick Sheridan’s four goals would spark a 9-0 for the Green and Gold and give them the convincing victory.
The Red Dragons struck first, scoring the first goal just under five minutes into the game. As it looked like Brockport might go into the second quarter scoreless, senior Owen Vanwie scored on an unassisted goal to give the Golden Eagles their first points of the game. Before the Red Dragons defense could even catch their breath, Sheridan would score his first goal of the game less than a minute after Vanwie, giving Brockport a 2-1 lead going into the second period.
The Green and Gold got off to a slow start in the second quarter. It was Sheridan again to break the scoring drought for the Golden Eagles. Sheridan’s second goal was his only unassisted goal of the game and came with less than five minutes remaining in the second period. Just two minutes later, senior Jack Peterson would score off a Ryan McCarthy assist to give Brockport a comfortable 4-1 lead going into halftime.
The Golden Eagles came out on fire in the second half. Just three minutes into the third quarter, sophomore Carson Colucci carved up the Red Dragon defense for his first goal of the game. Freshman Nate Askin tacked on a goal with nearly 10 minutes remaining in the third period before Sheridan would score back-to-back extra man-up goals making the score 8-1 at the end of the third quarter.
After the game, Sheridan said that none of his four goals would be possible without his teammates.
“With a zone defense we have to be really team oriented,” Sheridan said. “Against a zone defense there has to be a lot of ball movement, and all six guys have to be on the same page. Honestly, it’s just a credit to my teammates to be able to move the ball and be in the right spaces at the right time, and for me to make the most out of every opportunity that they presented me with.”
Senior Rocco Stanillo would score the Green and Gold’s only goal in the fourth quarter before the Red Dragons scored an additional two goals giving Brockport the 9-3 victory.
Sheridan led the team with five total points while McCarthy led the Golden Eagles in assists with two. Senior Aidan Fitzgerald recorded six groundballs in the victory, a stat he already leads the SUNYAC division in.
Brockport’s record improves to 7-2 and 2-0 against conference opponents. After the game, Sheridan shared the reasons for the Green and Gold’s impressive start to the season.
“As a team, we’ve done an incredible job of doing all of the little things at a really high level,” Sheridan said. “Things like clearing the ball well, limiting turnovers offensively, being students of the game and operating as one team; it’s really a credit to coach Wineburg and the rest of our coaching staff and how they prepared us. It’s also a reflection of the leadership that we have with all the upperclassmen because we’ve really been able to get the underclassmen to buy in and they’ve responded with great enthusiasm, work ethic and they showed some character that helped us be prepared for the conference games that we’ve played so far.”
The Golden Eagles next game is against SUNY Cortland on Friday, April 8, at 6:00 p.m. at Bob Boozer field. Fans are asked to wear white for a WHITE OUT!
