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Red Dragons escape Bears, Potsdam clinches men's lax playoff spot

Posted 4/26/15

ONEONTA, N.Y.—Austin McAskill scored with 13 seconds left to lift SUNY Oneonta (7-7, 3-3 SUNYAC) to a 14-13 victory over the SUNY Potsdam men's lacrosse team (7-7, 3-3) on Saturday afternoon. …

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Red Dragons escape Bears, Potsdam clinches men's lax playoff spot

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ONEONTA, N.Y.—Austin McAskill scored with 13 seconds left to lift SUNY Oneonta (7-7, 3-3 SUNYAC) to a 14-13 victory over the SUNY Potsdam men's lacrosse team (7-7, 3-3) on Saturday afternoon. Freshman attackman Dalston Day (Akwesasne, N.Y./Salmon River) scored three goals and junior captain Pat Bonafede (Churchville, N.Y./Churchville-Chili) added two goals and two assists to lead the Bears. McAskill had three goals and two assists for the Red Dragons.

Potsdam scored the first three goals of the contest in the opening 3:18. Senior captain Jon Woodworth, Bonafede and freshman attackman Eric Soderquist (Watertown, N.Y./Watertown) gave the Bears a 3-0 lead at 11:42. Junior midfielder Brian Martin (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) and junior attackman Ed Doherty (Amherst, N.Y./Amherst) assisted on Bonafede and Soderquist's goals, respectively. However, as they would all day, Oneonta answered. Charles Montgomery and Nathan Doody closed the gap to 3-2. With 1:34 left in the opening quarter, Soderquist set up Doherty to make it 4-2.

The Red Dragons outscored Potsdam 4-2 in the second quarter to forge a 6-6 draw by halftime. Doherty and junior midfielder Matt Kennedy (Clay, N.Y./Cicero-North Syracuse) scored for the Bears.

Day gave Potsdam momentum at the start of the third quarter with two straight goals. Martin then scored to make it 9-6 at 3:06. Bonafede assisted on Day's first goal and Martin's tally. Hunter DeLuca got Oneonta within 9-7 at 7:58, but Bonafede and Day scored again for the Bears' biggest lead of the afternoon at 11-7. The Red Dragons scored the final three of the quarter and trailed just 11-10 after 45 minutes.

Soderquist and sophomore attackman Berkley Stone (Madison, Conn./Daniel Hand) built Potsdam's lead back to 13-10 with 7:24 to play, but it was all Red Dragons after that. After goals from Devon Casey and Robert Neubert, Connor Coyle tied the game at 13-13 with 1:59 remaining, setting the stage for McAskill's game-winner.

In goal, junior Pete Gropp (Fairport, N.Y./Fairport) stopped 19 shots. Ryan Adler made nine saves for Oneonta.

The Red Dragons outshot the Bears 48-35, but the Bears topped Oneonta in ground balls (30-21) and face-offs (20-10). Potsdam junior face-off specialist Brandon Grace (Penn Yan, N.Y./Penn Yan) won 19 of his 29 opportunities.

Despite the loss, Potsdam still earned the three-seed in next week's SUNYAC Tournament. The Bears will head to second-seeded Plattsburgh for a semifinal rematch with the Cardinals on Wednesday at 4 p.m. Last season, with the roles reversed, third-seeded Plattsburgh knocked off two-seed Potsdam 11-6 at Maxcy Turf Field. Top seed SUNY Cortland will host fourth-seed Oneonta in the other semifinal matchup.