OSWEGO, NY — Men’s Basketball battled Cortland Tuesday night in the first round of the SUNYAC Championship. The 74-67 final featured a Laker comeback in the second half as the team outscored the Red Dragons 44-30 to secure the win. Junior Liam Sanborn had a large part in the comeback as the guard put up 26 points in his 38 minutes play to lead the Lakers. Senior Joe Sullivan secured six field goals in his 38 minutes played as well. This win eliminates the Cortland Red Dragons who were the fifth seed in the playoffs.
Oswego now looks ahead to the Semi-Final round in which the team will have to travel to Brockport to face off against the number one team. The nationally ranked Golden Eagles are scheduled to battle the Lakers at 7:30 p.m. upon the finish of the other game between Oneonta and Potsdam. The winners will play each other at 4 p.m. on Saturday in Brockport.
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Oswego State women’s hockey completes comeback against SUNY Potsdam
POTSDAM N.Y. — The Oswego women’s hockey team is in the midst of a fight for playoff seeding in the NEWHL. Coming into Tuesday night’s matchup in Potsdam they had three games remaining. The game against the Bears was a big one, the Lakers have already clinched a spot in the playoffs, but Potsdam still fighting for that final seed.
The Lakers took the first period. The lone goal of the period coming on the power play. Morgan Shines passed the puck up to the offensive blue line. Captain Philomena Teggart grabbed the puck and skated to the middle, Shines and Mack Hull set up a screen in front of goal and Teggart took a shot low on the goalies glove side and put it just inside the post. The Lakers killed a late power play for the Bears, and finished the first up on the scoreboard. They dominated the period, winning shots on goal 18-4.
The Lakers almost beat themselves at the start of the second period. A power play three minutes into the period for the Bears and a power play nine minutes in both got killed by the Lakers, with Laker goalie Joanna Hiebert making a few nice saves to keep the Lakers up. Unfortunately, quickly after the end of the second power play the Bears tied the game. Potsdam won possession at their offensive blue line setting up a two-on-two, and forward Kaylee Merrill threatened a pass but took it herself and scored a goal that was assisted by former Laker Megan Teachout. Just four minutes later Merrill picked off a Laker pass and took it one-on-one down the ice and scored a shorthanded goal to give the Bears a 2-1 lead and get her second goal of the night. Oswego again led in shot 15-11.
The third period started with the Lakers finishing off a penalty kill. The Lakers would go on the penalty kill again just before the three minute mark in the period. The Laker would kill it and clear the puck out of the defensive zone. The puck would skip a Bears players stick and Morgan Shines would gather and shoot it to the high blocker side for her team leading ninth goal and tie the game back up at two a piece with fifteen to go. The Lakers would go on a power play with 7:30 to go. Chyne Kennedy would make a key play to keep stop Potsdam for clearing the puck. She would pass the puck to Simone Bednarik who would pass it to Ariella Haas would put the puck in the back of the net for what was the game winning goal. The Lakers defensive would step up and stop a few Potsdam chances, including a late penalty kill, and the game would finish 3-2 in the Lakers favor. Joanna Hiebert would finish the game with twenty saves and improve her record to 10-3-1.
With the win, the Lakers have now won six straight and have a record of 14-0-7-1 (11-0-4-1 NEWHL). They are currently tied with Cortland in the standings, but sit a seed below due to the tiebreaker being head-to-head with the one seed, in this case Plattsburgh. The Lakers have two games left in the season and need to win out and need Cortland to lose one of their final two, both against SUNY Canton. The first of the Lakers final two games is Friday February, 18 in Morrisville against the Mustangs. WTOP10 will have continuing coverage of the Oswego women’s hockey team through the rest of the season and NEWHL playoffs.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY SHELBY PEPLOWSKI, WTOP10 PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT
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Men’s Basketball drops tight conference match up to Oneonta
OSWEGO, NY — Men’s Basketball dropped a conference game to the Oneonta Red Dragons 76-66 for only their second SUNYAC loss of the season. The Lakers seven game winning streak snapped as the Lakers would allow 43 Red Dragon points in the second half in the defeat. Freshman Jeremiah Sparks once again lead the Lakers with 23 points as he hit seven field goals in his 40 minutes played. Joe Sullivan tallied 19 points and also hit seven field goals along with two 3-pointers.
Oswego falls to 5-2 in conference and hold the 4th spot in the standings as the Lakers look ahead to Potsdam Friday night. The Bears are 6-1 and tied for first in the SUNYAC standings. The Lakers will play right after Women’s Basketball as the Men’s game is set to tip off at 7:30 p.m. in Potsdam.
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Oswego State Softball Gets Set For Home Opener
OSWEGO, N.Y. — Oswego Softball plays their first games in over two weeks, when they play their home opening doubleheader Friday, April 9th against Geneseo at 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. The Lakers come in 1-1 after a doubleheader split at RIT back on Monday, March 22nd.
First pitch in game one will mark the first home game of Gabrielle Rivers’ head coaching career. Rivers was an assistant coach for four years at Le Moyne, and was hired as the Lakers softball head coach in the summer of 2019. The Lakers softball team did not compete in a single game before the 2020 season was cancelled, and this will be their first home game since April 22nd, 2019. The Lakers had 6 games over an 11 day period either cancelled or postponed, as Friday’s doubleheader marks the Lakers return to action. The Lakers had standouts at the plate in the doubleheader at RIT 18 days ago, Zoe Mennig was 4-7 with a double, 4 RBIs and a run, Madelana Wrubel was 2-5 with 2 doubles and 2 runs, and Taylor DuBois was 2-6 with 3 RBIs. Oswego also got a major contribution on the rubber from pitcher Madison Hoeflich who threw a 7 inning complete game in which she allowed 7 hits and 3 runs in the win. Look for the three batters to make a contribution Friday, and Hoeflich to shutdown opposing batters if she is called upon to start.
The Laker bats face a tall task in this 2-1 Geneseo Knights team. Geneseo was picked first in the preseason SUNYAC coaches poll, and while the Knights have been lacking with the bat, their pitching has been phenomenal. Geneseo is 2-1 even though they have scored 8 runs total through 3 games, and have scored only 1 run twice. Lauren Kersch won SUNYAC Pitcher of the Week after throwing a complete game and only allowing one run and one hit, which both came on a solo home run. Besides the one pitch, Kersch dominated University of Rochester in her first collegiate start, and looks like she can be an elite level arm for the Knights for years to come. Kersch has not been the only arm that has been dominant for the Knights, Nicole Schwartz who threw game one of Geneseo’s doubleheader at Rochester, also threw a complete game, she allowed 6 hits but did not allow a run.
Oswego Softball plays for the first time in 18 days, and plays their first home game in nearly 2 years on Friday, April 9th at 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. against Geneseo. Viewers can check out all the action on WTOP 10.
