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Late goals lift No. 15 Cortland over Bears men's lax, 11-8

Posted 4/5/15

CORTLAND, N.Y.—The SUNY Potsdam men's lacrosse team (5-4, 1-1 SUNYAC) battled fifteenth-ranked SUNY Cortland (6-4, 1-0 SUNYAC) evenly for three quarters. However, the Red Dragons scored three goals …

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Late goals lift No. 15 Cortland over Bears men's lax, 11-8

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CORTLAND, N.Y.—The SUNY Potsdam men's lacrosse team (5-4, 1-1 SUNYAC) battled fifteenth-ranked SUNY Cortland (6-4, 1-0 SUNYAC) evenly for three quarters. However, the Red Dragons scored three goals late to escape the upset with an 11-8 victory. Junior attackman Ed Doherty (Amherst, N.Y./Amherst) led the Bears with three goals. Akwesasne resident and Massena grad Zach Hopps paced Cortland with three goals and three assists.

Doherty opened the scoring with a man-up goal at the 8:40 mark of the first quarter with an assist from freshman attackman Eric Soderquist (Watertown, N.Y./Watertown). Sophomore attackman Berkley Stone (Madison, Conn./Daniel Hand) put Potsdam up 2-0 just over three minutes later. The Red Dragons rallied for two to tie the game from Mike Cantelli and Matt Savlov.

Stone found junior midfielder Brian Martin (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) at 6:16 of the second quarter to put Potsdam back up 3-2. Cortland answered with four straight, consisting of two in a row from Hopps and Benjamin Dunlavey and the Red Dragons led 6-3 at the half.

The third quarter proved to be the Bears most productive of the contest as they outscored Cortland 5-2. At 13:41, Woodworth started the comeback with an unassisted tally. Junior midfielder Matt Kennedy (Clay, N.Y./Cicero-North Syracuse) closed the gap to 6-5 at 9:16, but 59 seconds later Mike Trass put the Red Dragons back up by two. Doherty countered with his second at 4:03, but Hopps made it 8-6 90 seconds later. Potsdam closed the quarter with two goals in 16 seconds. Doherty completed his hat trick at 1:32 and Kennedy scored his second at 1:16 and game was even at 8-8.

The teams went toe-to-toe for the first nine minutes of the final quarter with no scoring changes. With Potsdam building momentum around the nine-minute mark, Cortland called time out to settle things down. Dunlavey broke the tie with the eventual game-winner at 6:26. Bears junior goalie Pete Gropp (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) made two more saves before Dunlavey struck again at 4:02. The Red Dragons won the ensuing faceoff and maintained possession until Mike Cantelli closed the scoring at 2:53, making 11-8.

Gropp finished another solid performance with 11 saves, while Scott Tota earned the win for Cortland with eight stops.

The Red Dragons edged Potsdam in shots 36-32 and finished with a 41-28 advantage in ground balls.

The Bears are back home on Wednesday when they host Oswego State at 7 p.m. under the lights.