OSWEGO, NY — Wednesday evening, the Empire 8 Conference announced the cancellation of their fall sports for the Fall 2020 season. This unanimous decision came due to concerns of COVID-19 and the safety of student athletes. The sports that will be canceled are cross country, field hockey, football, men’s golf, men’s and women’s soccer, women’s tennis, and women’s volleyball. The conference has come out and stated that these sports will be given the opportunity to place in the Spring 2021 season if COVID-19 is less of a threat.
Although a majority of the Oswego State teams compete in the SUNYAC conference, Men’s golf is one of the few sports that is in the Empire 8 Conference. Oswego is an affiliate member of the conference, as the SUNYAC does not have a Men’s Golf Championship. The Lakers compete against Utica College, St. John Fisher College, Sage College, Elmira College, and Nazareth College in the Men’s Golf Championship. With the team playing half of their tournament in the fall, and half in the spring, the cancellation will affect the team for a portion of their season as of right now. Wresting is the only other Oswego State team in the Empire 8 conference.
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Women’s lacrosse struggles against SUNY Cortland
OSWEGO, N.Y. — The Oswego State women’s lacrosse team had an afternoon contest with the SUNY Cortland Red Dragons Friday. Cortland came in as the number one team in the SUNYAC, and with an undefeated program record against the Lakers, 31-0, and looked to keep both.
The Red Dragons started hot. They got on the board just 44 seconds into the game, and kept their lead the entire contest. By the end of the firsT, SUNY Cortland had scored two more, and held a 3-0 advantage. The second period was when Cortland did a lot of their damage. They scored eight more unanswered goals, three players finding the back of the net more than once. Cortland’s Lauren Hopsicker had a second period hat trick, and Hannah Lorenzen finished the hat trick she started in the first. The Lakers would score one before the half, Logan Castiglione netting one, but the Lakers still were down 11-1 at the half. Cortland kept up the pressure in the second half, scoring three more times in the third period to extend their advantage to 14-1. The Red Dragon’s scored twice more before the Lakers would answer in the fourth, but the fourth is when the Lakers found a little momentum. With just under eight minutes to go, Cortland got a penalty, and Oswego would capitalize. Isabella Lembo scored on the man-up advantage, for Oswego’s second, just nine seconds into the penalty. Lembo scored again just three minutes later for Oswego’s third, Castiglione tallying assists on both goals. The Red Dragons answered with one final goal, their seventeen of the game. Oswego would grab one more consolation goal, Shae McConnell scoring, assisted by Madison Davis. Oswego couldn’t match Cortland’s offensive prowess, and lost 17-4. Lembo scored twice for the Lakers and Castiglione had three points. A tough day between the pipes for Sarah Kamide, allowing 17 goals on 27 shots. For SUNY Cortland, five players had more than two goals, and three had more than four points.
The Lakers next matchup comes against SUNY Potsdam on Saturday April, 23. They now have a 4-9 (3-3 SUNYAC) record. They sit fifth in the SUNYAC with three games to go before the playoffs.
PHOTO COURTESY OF WILLIAM ROGERS, WTOP10 PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT
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Oswego Women’s Hockey secures Interim Head Coach
OSWEGO, NY — On Wednesday, June 17, the announcement was made by Oswego State Interim Athletics Director Eric Summers that the Women’s Ice Hockey team would be getting a new head coach, that being Mark Digby. Digby was the associate head coach of the team last season along side Diane Dillon, who will most likely retire from coaching. Dillon coached the team for 14 seasons. Digby will now be the Interim Head Coach heading into the 2020-21 season.
Digby graduated from SUNY Brockport in 2005 with a B.S. in Physical Education and M.S. in Recreation Management (2008). He would stay west of Rochester to be an assistant coach of the Men’s Hockey program from 2006-2010 before being hired by Oswego in the summer of 2010. Under Ed Gosek, Digby would be with the team while the group appeared in six NCAA tournaments, two frozen fours, and two national championship games.
In the Spring of 2019, Digby would make the switch to Women’s Hockey and join the team as the Associate Head Coach. During his first season with the group, the team would finish with a record of 16-7-4, the most wins for the program since the 2016-17 campaign. The Lakers would fall to the Plattsburgh Cardinals, the top team in the nation, in the NEWHL Championship. This was the first time the team has made the championship game after joining the conference. Overall, the group has made steady improvements and is in a good spot heading into the 2020-21 season under Digby. There looks to be a continued healthy relationship between the players and the coaching staff after Digby joined prior to this past season. WTOP 10 will continue to update you on all of the Oswego State teams heading into the fall season.
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Men’s Hockey Season ends after Whiteout PT2
OSWEGO, N.Y. – The Oswego State men’s hockey team’s season came to a head on Saturday night. A SUNYAC Championship bout against the programs biggest and longest rival, the Plattsburgh Cardinals, in the Deborah F. Stanley Ice Arena. The squads finished one and two in the SUNYAC regular season standings, and were playing for the fourth time this season. The Lakers were leading the series 2-1, but the second win over the Cardinals didn’t count for SUNYAC standings as it was in a winter break tournament.
It took just two minutes for the Cardinals to find the back of the net. Plattsburgh’s Adam Tretowicz stole the puck from an Oswego defender, skated across the face of the goal, and buried it in the top left corner. From there it was a very back on forth first period, and also a very physical one. Plenty of big hits across the middle and against the boards, some of which resulted in penalties. The first penalty of the period was a goalie interference call against Connor Sleeth who checked Plattsburgh goalie Eli Shiller who was out of his goal. The second penalty was against Ryan Dickinson for elbowing, both penalties were killed by the Lakers. Plattsburgh Jacob Modry took a cross checking penalty with less than a minute left in the period. At the end of the first the Cardinals were up 1-0. Shiller made six saves in the first period, Cal Schell had four.
The second period was goalless, but wasn’t lacking in action. The period started with the Cardinals killing the penalty. The Lakers took the next penalty, and killed it. In the fifth minute, both squads took rough calls, meaning it was 4-on-4 for the whole 2-minutes. Once again the special team’s units came up big for both squads. Another two penalties against the Cardinals were called during the period. Shiller made another six saves in that period, while the Schell had seven.
In the third period, the Cardinals took another early penalty, but once again killed it. Both teams weren’t effective on power. play in the game, Plattsburgh being 0-3, Oswego going 0-4. The Lakers were the most productive in the third period, with 15 shots on goal, more than doubling their shots output, from 12 to 27 total in the game. Despite that it was Plattsburgh that doubled their advantage with less than four minutes in the game. The Lakers didn’t go down with out a fight though and with less than a minute a slap shot from Tommy Cahill finally go the Lakers on the board. From there they pulled Cal Schell, but couldn’t get another in the net. The Cardinals captured their first SUNYAC title since 2017. Shiller finished the game with 26 saves, while Schell made 18 total.
Oswego finished their season 17-9-1 (12-4-0 SUNYAC). In the final national poll they are ranked 12. Senior forward Alex DiCarlo finished with a team high 13 goals. Junior Forward Shane Bull finished with with the team high in assists (19) and points (28). Freshman goalie Cal Schell finished the season 2.13 GAA and a .923 SV%. The Lakers lose eight seniors to graduation, D Troy Robillard, D Quinn Warmuth, F Tommy Cahill, F Thomas Rocco, F Garrett Clegg, F Alex DiCarlo (A), G Eric Green, D Ryan Bunka (C).
IMAGE PROVIDED BY ERIN BLANK, WTOP10 PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT
