The Oswego State Softball team takes the field Monday, March 22nd, for the first time since May 4th, 2019. The Lakers go on the road to take on RIT in a Monday afternoon doubleheader slated to take place at 3:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. The Lakers nearly 700 day off season is shown in roster changes. Four of the 14 girls who appeared in the most recent game, against Cortland in the SUNYAC playoffs are on the roster this year. The 2021 Oswego softball roster features ten newcomers along with seven upperclassmen who return from the 2019 team. The upperclassmen on the team will have a big leadership role this year because the two classes have not seen game action in their college careers.
The Tigers of RIT also have not yet played a game this season, but they were able to play ten in 2020 when they went 7-3 overall. The Tigers feature a very experienced team with nine upperclassmen plus two graduate students. Oswego starts their season with four games in Rochester, with two games against RIT at 3:00 and 5:00 Monday, March 22, as well as 1:00 and 3:00 Sunday March 28 at St. John Fisher. All of these games are non-conference as SUNYAC play does not start until April 1st.
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Oswego State Women’s Lacrosse Eliminated from SUNYAC Championship Contention
BROCKPORT, N.Y. — The Oswego State Women’s Lacrosse team lost their third SUNYAC game of the season on Wednesday, falling to the SUNY Brockport Golden Eagles 20-8. This is the Lakers second loss to the Golden Eagles in 2021 after previously losing 22-9 on April 17th. With Wednesday’s victory, Brockport moved to 7-1 in SUNYAC play and clinched first place in the west division.
Brockport came out of the opening faceoff firing as freshman midfielder, Logan Hibbard, scored back-to-back goals within the first 4 minutes of play. Oswego’s Shae McConnell responded quickly, bringing the score to 2-1. However, that would be as close as it game got. The Golden Eagles went on an 8-goal run throughout the first half and outscored the Lakers 7-5 in the second. Oswego wasn’t able to generate much offense in this contest. They shot the ball just 19 times all game and only 9 times in the first half. Freshman attack, Isabella Lembo, lead Oswego in scoring, totaling 3 goals on three shots. Logan Castiglione had 3 points of her own as she scored twice and added an assist. While Lakers leading scorer, Sela Wiley, didn’t have her usual outstanding game, she still scored once.
This loss drops Oswego to 3-3 in the West division and while they still sit in third place, they remain two games behind Geneseo. The Lakers have been mathematically eliminated for the SUNYAC Championship after their loss as Geneseo would secure the second spot in the division. Oswego was originally scheduled to take on SUNY Fredonia on April 24th, however, the game was cancelled following positive Covid tests from Fredonia. Now, Oswego will have the opportunity to improve to 4-3 against SUNY Geneseo on April 25th, their last scheduled game of the 2021 season. Game is set for 1 p.m. from Laker Turf Stadium and WTOP 10 will be at the field to cover all the action
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Men’s Soccer Wins against SUNYAC opponent Geneseo
OSWEGO — Laker Soccer opens up SUNYAC play with a shutout win against Geneseo. Kyle Scalzo nets two goals with one of those tallies coming within the final seconds of the first half. Goalkeeper Brian Terra records his fourth clean sheet of the season after the 2-0 victory over the Knights. The team looks to improve their win streak to three against the Brockport Golden Eagles on Saturday September 28th. Kickoff at 1 p.m. at Laker Turf Stadium.
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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.
