ONEONTA, NY – Visiting Utica out-scored Hartwick in each quarter to come away with a 9-4 win over the Hawks at Wright Stadium on Saturday. The game served as the first Empire 8 Conference game of the season for both teams.
           
Hartwick jumped out to an early lead when Cody Petillo (Holbrook, NY/Sachem North) tallied off a Fred Golini (Ronkonkoma, NY/Sachem North) feed 1:57 into the contest. The Pioneers answered right back 20 seconds later as Zack Stevenson scored the first of his game-high four goals to even the game.
           
UC went ahead with a goal with 8:31 left in the quarter and added an insurance tally at the 3:49 mark. The Pioneers wasted little time scoring in the second quarter with Stevenson winning the face-off and netting his second nine ticks into the period.
           
'Wick made it 4-2 on Jacob Sasche's (Baltimore, MD/Boys' Latin School of MD) goal at 4:43. Matt McCallan (Bay Shore, NY/West Islip) earned the assist. Utica scored again with 3:13 left in the second quarter and the Pioneers took a 5-2 lead into halftime.
           
Utica (4-2) added to its total in the third with two scores at 10:37 and 5:55 to open up a 7-2 advantage. The Hawks got one back on the man-advantage as Sasche scored from Roy Simmons (Fayetteville, NY/Fayettville-Manlius) with just over a minute left in the third quarter and 'Wick entered the fourth period down by four goals.
           
The score remained 7-3 through the opening 12 and a half minutes of the fourth quarter until Stevenson registered his fourth goal of the day with 2:24 remaining in the game. Kevin Rourke (Long Beach, NY/Long Beach) registered the Hawks' final goal of the day in a man-down situation 26 seconds later before the Pioneers ended the day's scoring with 1:16 left.
           
UC led Hartwick in shots (33-23) and ground balls (29-24). Connor Hudson (Moriches, NY/William Floyd) led Hartwick in ground balls on the day with five. He also won five face-offs. Kevin Wahl (Farmingdale, NY/Farmingdale) added four ground balls and tied for a game-high with two caused turnovers. Tanner Patterson (East Longmeadow, MA/East Longmeadow) and David Bianculli (Charlton, MA/Shepard Hill Regional) each contributed three ground balls.
           
Mike Rourke (Long Beach, NY/Long Beach) made a season-high 15 saves in the game for Hartwick.         
           
The Hawks next play on Tuesday at King's College.