NEW PALTZ, N.Y. – The Oswego State Women’s Soccer team faced off against the New Paltz Hawks on Saturday afternoon. This game was an important one for the Lakers as they were looking to get into one of the last SUNYAC playoff spots. Oswego would take control to start the first half of the matchup in what was a relatively quiet half of play. That was until Amber Mcdermott Scored first for the Lakers, unassisted at the 29:02 mark to give the Lakers a 1-0 lead. The Lakers held the advantage in the first half beating New Paltz in shots 5-2 and would take a 1-0 lead after one half of play.
In the second half we saw a momentum switch where New Paltz took over. Shortly into the second half, New Paltz would tie the match at 1 from a goal by Gaby Treble at the 48:56 mark. The Hawks would eventually take the lead over the Lakers halfway through the second half from Addison Weiner at the 69:10 mark to take a 2-1 lead over the Lakers. But the Lakers fought back to tie it as graduate transfer Graisa Madde would score the match’s final point, tying the game at 2 with just over 12 minutes remaining in the contest. Both teams could get nothing past the goalkeepers for the rest of the game and it would end in a 2-2 tie in Oswego’s last regular season game.
The Lakers finished their season with a record of 8-5-4, and a conference record of 3-3-3. The Lakers will now turn their focus to the playoffs as they will be the fifth seed. Oswego will take on the Plattsburgh Cardinals at Plattsburgh on October 29th at 1PM in the first round of the SUNYAC playoffs.
PHOTO COURTESY OF BRANDON CHAUG, WTOP10 PHOTOGRAPHY DEPARTMENT
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Men’s Hockey headed to Whiteout pt 2, SUNYAC Final addition
OSWEGO, NY – The Oswego State Men’s hockey team had a high pressure SUNYAC semi-final on Saturday night against the Buffalo State Bengals. The Bengals were coming off a mid-week upset over Cortland, and had their starting goalie, Emil Norrman, back from injury. The two sides had just played a week prior, but without Norrman, an All-SUNYAC goalie, in net, the Lakers put seven goals in the back of the net.
The first action in the first period was a slashing call against the Lakers, giving the Bengals an early man-advantage. The Lakers killed it without allowing a shot on net. A few minutes after the end of the penalty, Tyler Flack scored his first goal of the season to give Oswego a 1-0 lead. Just seconds after the puck-drop from the last goal, Alex DiCarlo found netting behind Norrman again. The rest of the period was tame, without anymore goals or penalties. The Oswego defense was strong in the first, and Cal Schell only had four saves. Norrman had eight saves.
At the start of the second, the Lakers were started quickly. It took just 40 seconds for Oswego’s Connor Gatto to score the Lakers third goal. Throughout the rest of the period, both squads traded shots though nothing found netting. With five to go in the period the Bengals took a too-many men penalty, though the Lakers couldn’t capitalize. With just over a minute to go in the period, Drake Semrad was called for a 5-minute major for contact to the head, meaning he also missed the remainder of the game. With the Lakers up 3-0 at the end of the period, things looked bleak for the Bengals, but with just under four minutes remaining on the penalty there was still hope. Schell only had to make another four saves in the period, Norrman made 14.
To start the third, Lakers killed the major penalty, but also picked up another meaning they were 5-on-3 for about 30 seconds. The Lakers killed that one as well, while only giving up two shots throughout the entire ordeal. The Lakers spent a good portion of five minutes on a man-advantage, with the Bengals taking back-to-back penalties. Oswego got five shots off during the penalties, but couldn’t find netting. With less than four to go, Buffalo State broke the shutout, burying a slap shot. It was long before the Lakers recaptured that three-goal lead. Tommy Cahill buried one just a minute later. A late penalty against Jackson Arcan gave Buffalo State one last shot, but they didn’t take advantage and the game ended 4-1. Troy Robillard had two assists, in the game. Quinn Warmuth and Matt McQuade led the team with five shots each, while also each grabbing an assist. Cal Schell only had 15 saves in the game, Emil Norrman had 33.
Oswego moves onto the SUNYAC Championship game against rival Plattsburgh in the Deborah F. Stanley Arena. The two sides have already met three times this season, twice as regular season games, once as a non-conference game. The winner of the game gets an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Puck drop is set for 7:00, in what will be a big weekend for Laker athletics.
IMAGE PROVIDED BY ERIN BLANK, 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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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.
