IMAGE PROVIDED BY MICHELLE QUIACHON, WTOP10 PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT
OSWEGO, NY – The Hamilton Continentals came into town to take on the Oswego State Lakers, looking to avenge a 3-2 home loss from early last season. They wasted no time getting started, with Brady Hyland netting the opening goal just 10 minutes into the first half, and giving Hamilton an early 1-0 lead.
Hamilton continued with a physical, no-nonsense style of play, as Aedan Burke picked up an early yellow card in the 24th minute, at which point they had already recorded 6 team fouls.
The Lakers eventually found their footing and applied some pressure, but Hamilton’s back line held strong, as the Continentals held the Lakers shotless through the first 45, and went into the halftime break ahead 1-0.
In the second half, The Lakers’ defense collapsed early, as the Continentals struck three times in the first 20 minutes, with Griffin Weidner ,Troy Miller, and Sean Curran all adding their names to the score sheet, extending Hamilton’s lead to 4-0.
For the Lakers, sophomore goaltender Kyle Rose put on a clinic, recording 11 saves, but it simply wasn’t enough to counter the 15 shots on target that he faced from Hamilton. With a 4-0 loss vs Hamilton, the Lakers move to 0-1-1 on the season, and will head to Elmira this Saturday, still in search of their first goal of the season.
Written by: Mike Neckers
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Where There’s Sparks, There’s Fire
Bethlehem, PA – The Lakers sailed down to Moravian College for the 40th Steel Club Classic picking up two wins on the perfect weekend. Their first matchup was against Montclair State who had scored over a hundred points in multiple games this season but couldn’t produce against the reigning SUNYAC championship defense of the Oswego Lakers. The Redhawks scored 73 points good enough for a season-low in their first 11 games this year, but it wasn’t a cakewalk win for the Lakers.
Montclair State ran a baseline to baseline trap on Oswego from the opening tip until the horn sounded at the end of the game. Senior Brandon Gartland shot 5 for 6 from beyond the arc exploiting no-easy-inside-bucket Redhawk defense. Junior Liam Sanborn finished the game with 22 points and helped control the pace of the game when Montclair began to chip away at the lead in the second half. Coach Leone expressed that Liam is “the guy who runs the show for us” and as good as he was on Saturday, it was a different story come Sunday.
Sanborn got into foul trouble early in the game against the Moravian College Greyhounds and didn’t see the floor much in the first half. Ending the game with 6 total points, Sanborn wasn’t the normal floor general for the Lakers. Freshman Jeremiah Sparks was the ‘spark horse’ on Sunday scoring 32 points bringing his total up to 50 on the weekend. Sparks plugged the hole in his offensive game after having five turnovers on Saturday against the Redhawks and Coach Leone was pleased with his performance.
“[Jeremiah] has obviously got some g-d given ability with his athleticism,” Coach Leone praised, “tonight might have been Jeremiah’s best game in terms of moving the ball when he was double-teamed.”
Sparks was also a presence on the defensive end tonight registering two steals and three monster blocks against the Hounds–the only three blocks of the game for Oswego. Freshman Kaleb Cook was in the backcourt with Sparks and he came up with a couple of clutch buckets and rebounds down the stretch. This turned out to be another point of emphasis for Leone regarding his comfort levels with the depth on his team.
“We finished the game with two freshman guards out there,” Leone said “so that’s pretty good for the future of our program. It was a great thing for them to be able to go through that experience especially during a win.”
Although, this win may have been a loss if it wasn’t for Joe Sullivan’s ability to flip the switch in the second half. Sullivan was non-existent in the first half ending without a bucket but through all of the adversity Oswego played against being in Moravian’s backyard, he finished with 22 second-half points.
“We challenged a couple of guys at halftime.” Leone expressed, “Like a senior should, [Sullivan] stepped up his game and played a great second half. We wouldn’t have won without him.”
Joe Sullivan finished with five boards to add to his second-half outburst and went 10 for 11 from the charity stripe. Funny enough, his missed free throw would be the ONLY missed free throw on the night for the Lakers. Oswego made 37 free throws on 38 attempts which helped seal the deal late in the game. Coach Leone was satisfied by their efforts at the line tonight.
“That was the thing I was most happy about.” Leone said, “I don’t know if we made that one we missed if it would be some kind of record for us. 37 out of 38 is pretty impressive and our guys deserve a lot of credit on that.”
Sullivan and Gartland combined for 21 of 22 at the free-throw line on Sunday night as the Lakers outran the Greyhounds winning by a score of 85 to 79 and improve to 7-2 on the year. The Lakers will play their home opener this Friday against Fredonia at 7:30 p.m. in Max Zeil Gymnasium, and look for Jeremiah Sparks to continue to produce as he grows into a future SUNYAC star.
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Laker men’s soccer suffer first SUNYAC loss on the road
BROCKPORT, N.Y. – The Laker men’s soccer took a trip to western New York to play their first SUNYAC matchup against the Brockport Golden Eagles on Wednesday. This game was back and forth right from the beginning stages of the contest when both teams shared possession in each teams offensive zone. Oswego took momentum starting at the 20-minute mark, firing three shots at Brockport goalie Andrew Taylor. But both teams couldn’t get anything to go in the first 45 minutes and the score was tied at 0-0 at half.Oswego started with the momentum again in the second half but was then stopped when Russ Domm scored for Brockport at 51:24. Both teams started to become frustrated from not getting much going and the officials gave out three yellow cards in just 6:57 of play in the second half, two for Oswego and one for Brockport. Jean Pierre Moquillaza put a shot on goal in the 78th minute in hopes for a tying goal but Taylor made a great save keeping the lead for the Golden Eagles. The Lakers had one opportunity to tie with 16 seconds left on the clock but Taylor read Jason Wuytack shot well to clinch the win for Brockport. Kyle Gehnrich led the Lakers with three shots and Matt D’Arpino finished the contest with four saves in the net for Oswego. Oswego is now 2-4-1(0-1-1 SUNYAC)
The Lakers will come back home to take on SUNYAC opponent Cortland Red Dragons on Saturday, September 24 for at 1:00PM
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Oswego State women’s basketball falls short heading into holiday break
OSWEGO N.Y. — The Oswego State women’s basketball team Saturday suffered an unfortunate 59-48 loss to the Fredonia Blue Devils. The Lakers stayed in it until the very end where Fredonia went on a nine point run to end the game, ultimately giving the Blue Devils the victory. It was almost as close as it can get heading into the forth with the Blue Devils only up by one point. The Lakers were ready for a battle, but came up on the losing end. Freshman Shania Iglesias was the lead scorer for the Lakers dropping an impressive seventeen points with two three pointers and nine rebounds. Right behind Iglesias was senior Danielle Caivana with twelve points. Despite this tough loss, the Lakers have to find a way to start clicking and picking up some wins. All hope is not lost as the Lakers return after the holiday season to host Alfred State January 3rd in the Max Ziel Gymnasium. Tip off is at 12 p.m. on WTOP 10!
Image Provided by Oswego State Athletics
