OSWEGO N.Y. — The Oswego men’s soccer team travelled to Cortland Saturday afternoon to take on the Red Dragons in the SUNYAC tournament championship game. The Lakers had fought hard to make it to the tournament and then make it all the way to the championship game, but their exciting run came to an end as they would fall 6-0. Cortland got themselves on the scoreboard early when they would get to a loose ball in the box and score. The Red Dragon’s would net another before the half to make it 2-0. Cortland kept their momentum going in the second half, getting their third goal seven minutes in, and their fourth seven minutes later. They converted two more times before the end of the game, making it 6-0. Cortland dominated the second half of the game, getting fourteen shots to Oswego’s three. Oswego had a total of six shots in the game, two each from Ryan Young and Kyle Gehnrich. Oswego’s Caleb Munski, Kieran Gilroy, and Hajoon Lee all earned All-Tournament honors.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY WILLIAM ROGERS, 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 Soccer losses to Nationally Ranked Oneonta in 2OT
OSWEGO — The Lakers took the nationally ranked Oneonta to double OT when Witman Hernandez, leading scorer in SUNYAC, put the Red Dragons on top. In the 2-1 loss, Laker Jack Van Pelt got the lone goal off a free kick from sophomore Caleb Munski. Throughout play, Oswego defense blocked multiple Oneonta shots along with goalie Brian Terra’s five saves. The Lakers look to split the weekend with a game against New Paltz today. The team will honor their graduating class as this will be the regular season game at Laker Stadium.
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Oswego State Women’s Lacrosse Prepares for Brockport Following Win Versus Buffalo State
OSWEGO, N.Y. — The Oswego Women’s Lacrosse team won their fourth game of the season on Monday, defeating the Buffalo State Bengals 14-4. This was the Lakers second win of the season versus the Bengals as the won their last matchup 14-6 on April 10th. The Lakers sweep the Bengals to get two wins this season in the SUNYAC West Division.
Oswego snapped a 3-game losing streak with Monday’s victory, something they needed to accomplish in order to keep pace in the West division. It was a back-and-forth game midway through the 1st half. The Lakers lead 3-0 in the opening 5 minutes following goals from Shae McConnell, Erin Lehmann, and leading scorer, Sela WIley. The Bengals then retaliated with 3 goals of their own, tying the game with 12:36 left in the 1st half. However, Buffalo State would never hold a lead in the entire game as they were outscored by Oswego 11-1 at the end of regulation. Wiley had yet another dominant performance on Monday. The sophomore scored 5 goals, bringing her season total to 27, and added an assist on top of that. McConnell also had a hat-trick while Isabella Lembo fell just short, totaling 2 goals and 1 assist. Four other Lakers scored a single goal, including Logan Castiglione, Julia Quirk, Erin Lehmann, and Katie Fierro. Fierro netted her first collegiate goal in the victory.
Oswego improved to 3-2 in SUNYAC play and will look towards their highly anticipated matchup vs SUNY Brockport. The Lakers will look to avenge their blowout loss to the Golden Eagles just a few days ago on April 17th. Oswego lost 22-9 but will have to have a short term memory heading into Wednesday’s matchup. Brockport is on a 7-game winning streak, backed by the outstanding play of leading scorer, Heather Conklin. Conklin has scored a whopping 39 goals this season and had 6 against Oswego in their previous game. The Golden Eagles also have two other players with more than 20 goals, including Cassidy Burnash (24), and Allison Jennings (21). The Lakers will have to play better defensively in order to keep up with Brockport’s high-powered offense. Oswego currently sits in 3rd place in the West division and needs a victory to keep pace with SUNY Geneseo (4-1). Brockport (6-1) has already clinched a playoff berth and will look to continue their great 2021 season on Wednesday. Face off is set for 4:00 PM at Brockport for this SUNYAC West matchup.
