Oswego, N.Y. — The Oswego State field hockey team took to the field Wednesday night against Cortland. The Lakers fought hard, but the final score was a 3-0 Cortland win. The first goal came five minutes into the game by Cortland’s Kierra Ettere, one of the best goal scorers in the country. The other two Cortland goals would come in the first half of the game by Lily Fox. The Oswego defense would hold strong in the second half of the game not allowing a goal on thirteen shots. Oswego would take their only eight shots of the game in the second half, four of them going on target. Oswego’s Chloe Parks would get off three of those shots, with two of them on target ones. Oswego’s goalie, Erica Scheblein, would have nine saves in the contest.
Unfortunately, this loss would keep the Lakers out of the conference tournament. With one game to go, the team sits at 8-8, but only 2-4 in SUNYAC play, putting them sixth in the conference. They play their last game of the season at Keuka College on Friday at 4:00 p.m.
Image Provided by Shelby Peplowski, WTOP 10 Photography Department
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Men’s Hockey Season Recap after SUNYAC run
GENESEO, NY — The Men’s Hockey team will head to Geneseo this weekend to battle for the SUNYAC Championship. The 16-9-1 Lakers have had an up and down season up to this point, as the group now is on a five-game winning streak fresh of a victory over rivals Plattsburgh. Oswego’s season started back on October 19th with an exhibition game against Carleton Place, then against Nazareth, both wins for the Lakers. The group would head into the regular season and secure four conference wins in a homestand at the Marano Campus Center that would give them first place in the SUNYAC standings.
One turning point in the season came from a road trip to Geneseo, to face a nationally ranked team in the same barn that Oswego lost the SUNYAC Championship in last season. The Lakers would fall apart and lose 9-1 as multiple Lakers would be tossed from the game and miss their next matchup against Hobart. This game would be the start of a three-game losing streak against nationally ranked teams, Hobart and Salve Regina in the Utica Thanksgiving Tournament. Oswego would turn it around on that Saturday in Utica against Plymouth State to give the Lakers hope as the team continued into the last week of the first half of the season. The Lakers would head on the road and swept the Buffalo teams in the conference to finish 7-3 in the first semester.
Oswego would come back from Christmas Break to play in the annual Pathfinder Bank/Oswego State Classic in which the team would first face off against Saint Mary’s. The defending champs would fall to the mid-west team 1-0 and face UNE the following day and also lose 4-3 to start the new year off on the wrong foot. This losing streak would continue against two more nationally ranked teams in the month of January as Utica and Elmira defeated the Lakers in the Marano Campus Center. The Lakers would not defeat any nationally ranked team this season as the group would go 0-6 against those teams, one of the biggest eyesores of the 2019-2020 season.
After losing to Cortland in overtime, Steven Kozikoski, the sophomore netminder that has not played in a regular season game for the Lakers, got his shot in between the pipes as both senior goalies David Richer and Cedric Hansen were not playing their best games. Kozikoski’s first start was against Canton, a team Oswego has figured out the past few seasons. The Lakers took a commanding win in the Marano Campus Center as the group defeated Canton 8-2 and was one of the turning points that occurred in the second half of the season. The new netminder would go 5-1-1 in net and win his first playoff game for the Lakers this past Tuesday.
The group secured the second seed in the standings with their success in the second semester and faced Plattsburgh on home ice. The team would defeat their rivals 4-1 and move on to Geneseo. The Lakers season once again would end in Geneseo as the Ice Knights defeated Oswego 4-1 in the SUNYAC finals. This would be the second time Oswego would not be able to get it done in the finals while being held at Geneseo. The Lakers would finish 16-10-1 to end the season as the group looks to rebuild as 13 seniors will move on from the program. Moving forward, Oswego looks to rebuild around players like Alex DiCarlo, Travis Broughman, and Steven Kozikoski heading into these next few years as these three players are all underclassmen.
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Oswego Men’s Lacrosse: Season Debut Delayed
OSWEGO, NY — The Oswego State Men’s Lacrosse Team hasn’t played a game since March 10th of last year. Unfortunately, the Lakers will have to wait a bit longer to play their first game of the 2021 season. Oswego was originally scheduled to begin their season at home vs. SUNY Morrisville on March 17th, but due to a positive coronavirus case on the opposing team, the game was cancelled. Oswego was then scheduled to play SUNY Oneonta on March 20th, however the game was postponed earlier on Friday due to a positive case on the Lakers team.
This is now the second time in one week the Lakers will have their game either postponed or cancelled. The next scheduled game for Oswego is March 26th vs Geneseo. This was unfortunate for the Lakers as the game vs. Geneseo is the first of six scheduled SUNYAC games, meaning Oswego will have played zero games before conference play begins. If this happens, Oswego will be the only team in their division to not play a game before conference play starts. The Oswego Men’s Lacrosse Team last played Geneseo on April 20th, 2019, in a 13-14 home loss.
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Oswego’s Men’s Lacrosse Team Set to Begin 2021 Season
OSWEGO, NY — The Oswego State Men’s Lacrosse Team is set to take on SUNY Oneonta on Saturday, March 20th to kick off their 2021 season. This will be the Oswego Men’s Lacrosse team’s first action in over a year due to the pandemic. However, unlike prior seasons, conference play is set to begin earlier than ever before, starting March 26th versus Geneseo. Senior goaltender Kevin O’Donnell understands just how important these early games are to set the tone for the rest of the season.
“With SUNYACs coming up so soon and those being the most important games for our team, the level of expectancy exceeds any other season in my opinion,” O’Donnell said. “Especially with the teams were playing, Morrisville, Oneonta, and then the rest of the SUNY division, it’s important that were on our A-game.”
O’Donnell is now a team captain and is looking to surpass 400 career saves in the coming games.
Being that this is the Lakers first game since March of 2020, it’s important that they eliminate any mistakes or confusion they might have. Head Coach Drew Bezek, who is going into his 7th season on the coaching staff, believes his team needs to master their game plan early on in order to be successful.
“With early season games, it’s always about limiting mistakes and doing what we need to do. A lot of times with the beginning part of the season, you’re not so worried about your competition and what they run. It’s us being super-efficient and consistent at what we’re trying to do.”
Although many things are different this season for the players, coaches, and staff, film sessions and scouting remain an important aspect of Oswego’s success. However, since teams only played a few games in 2020, the Lakers will have to anticipate Oneonta’s game plan based off what they saw from early last year.
Coach Bezek said, “We’ll treat this year similar to the past where for the first game of the year, your kind of going off tendencies from the previous year. We’re not going to know some of their new players, but from the film, we could try to piece together how they run their system.”
The Lakers have won their last four games vs. Oneonta dating back to 2016 and look to extend their win streak to five on Saturday.
Package Aired Thursday 3/18/21 on Nightly News
