HOBOKEN, NJ – Hartwick men's lax saw its season come to an end on Wednesday in the Empire 8 Conference semifinals as the Hawks fell to top seed and nationally fourteenth ranked Stevens Institute of Technology (16-2) by a final score of 19-6 in a game played at De Baun Athletic Complex in Hoboken, NJ. The game was the second meeting this season between the two teams in after the Ducks won an 11-5 clash at De Baun on April 14. It was also a rematch of last season's Empire 8 semifinal in Hoboken in which the Ducks came away with a 14-4 victory.
           
The Hawks started the game with pair of leads. The first came 4:13 into the contest as Brett Maguire (Adams Center, NY/South Jefferson) bounced a shot past the Stevens' keeper for a 1-0 advantage. The Ducks would answer with their first goal of the day after they capitalized on a Hawks' miscue in the back at 9:15. 'Wick retook the advantage as Mike Majchrzak (Plantsville, CT/Southington) found David Demand (Chittenango, NY/Chittenango) in front for a 2-1 edge.
           
The Ducks answered just 12 ticks later off the face-off to tie the score. Tommy Dawson then netted two straight goals at 4:55 and 1:24 to give Stevens a 4-2 lead. Eric Schweitzer (Babylon, NY/Babylon) would feed Sam Ferguson (Baldwin, NY/Baldwin) for a transition goal with under a minute left but the Ducks tallied with 4.3 seconds remaining for a 5-3 edge after the first quarter.
           
The Ducks took control in the second, scoring five times in the opening eight minutes. Dawson opened the scoring after 1:55 as he fired high past 'Wick goalie C.J. Alesandrini (Schenectady, NY/Colonie) for a 6-3 edge. Eric Radbourne tacked on the Ducks' seventh at the 11:58 mark and Dawson added a man-up tally to push the lead to five. Brandon Monteleone scored his second after 4:33 and Dawson registered his fifth at the 7:49 mark.
           
Cordell Armstrong (Harleysville, PA/Souderton Area) snapped the Ducks' run with an unassisted tally with 2:30 left before halftime. Monteleone responded with his third of the day one minute later. A lazer from John Boutureira made it 12-4 at the break. The Ducks would out-shoot the Hawks 22-10 at halftime. They controlled the draw winning 14-of-18 in the half.
           
Stevens scored three goals in the opening 10 minutes of the third quarter to take a 15-4 lead. Long got one back for the Hawks with 1:33 to play in the quarter and the Ducks' lead was 10 heading into the fourth quarter, where they would add four more goals. Ferguson picked up his second tally on the man advantage with 4:08 left in the contest for the Hawks' last tally.
           
The Ducks would finish with a 44-18 edge in shots. They had 41 ground balls to the Hawks' 26 and they would win a total of 23 face-offs.
           
Schweitzer ended his final game as a Hawk with a game-high eight caused turnovers and six ground balls. Nick Couvaris (Seaford, NY/Seaford) added a team-best eight ground balls and four caused turnovers. Garrison Wojtas (Hauppauge, NY/Hauppauge) contributed four ground balls. Alesandrini finished with five saves.
           
The game marked the final one for seniors Schweitzer, Maguire, Patterson and David Bianculli (Charlton, MA/Shepard Hill Regional). Maguire closed the day with a goal and a ground ball. Patterson had two ground balls and one caused turnover. Bianculli contributed a ground ball and six won face-offs.
           
The Hawks end their season with a record of 9-5, the most wins for the program since 2011. They also have made the playoffs for the first time in back-to-back seasons since 2004 and 2005.