ONEONTA, NY – Visiting Stevens Institute of Technology, ranked tenth in the latest USILA national poll, scored five goals in a 3:46 span of the first quarter and never looked back as the Ducks defeated Hartwick's men's lacrosse team on Saturday at Wright Stadium, 18-6. The Hawks close out the regular season with an overall record of 10-4 and a mark of 6-2 in the Empire 8. The Ducks improve the 15-2 overall and they claim the conference regular season title with an 8-0 mark.
           
Hartwick has earned the third seed in the Empire 8 semifinals and will travel to second seed St. John Fisher on Wednesday, May 1.
           
Today's game served as the program's Senior Day with Chris VanDemark (Painted Post, NY/Corning-Painted Post), Sam Ferguson (Baldwin, NY/Baldwin), Michael Castrogiovanni (Oyster Bay, NY/Oyster Bay), Garrison Wojtas (Hauppauge, NY/Hauppauge), Matt Puzo (Apalachin, NY/Vestal), Derek Chandler (Ballston Spa, NY/Ballston Spa), and Wyatt Long (Hardwick, NJ/Blair Academy) honored for their contributions prior to the opening face-off.
           
The Ducks first-quarter run began at the 9:40 mark on a tally from Michael Burns. Four more goals followed with the fifth coming at 5:54. Hartwick registered its first goal of the day at 3:10 as Sam Ferguson scored off a feed from Kainen Francis-Thompson (Hogansburg, NY/Massena). Stevens would add three more goals in the final 1:44 and the Ducks led 8-1 after 15 minutes.
           
'Wick opened the second quarter with a Mike Majchrzak (Plantsville, CT/Southington) unassisted goal at 8:01 but the Ducks had another five-goal spurt to move in front 13-2. They scored all five in a 3:04 window.
           
Dylan Ferguson (Baldwin, NY/Baldwin) scored the Hawks' third goal early in the third period. Stevens would get the next three goals before Dylan Ferguson found the net once again to close the quarter with the Hawks down 16-4. The Ducks tacked on two more tallies in the fourth. Dylan Ferguson and David Demand (Chittenango, NY/Chittenango) then recorded goals to close out the day's scoring.
             
VanDemark and Tim Watson (Wrentham, MA/King Philip Regional) contributed assists in the game. Chandler had the team high in ground balls with five. C.J. Alesandrini (Schenectady, NY/Colonie) added four and VanDemark and Wojtas each chipped in three. Kyle Pearson (North Haven, CT/North Haven) caused a team-high two turnovers.
           
Stevens had large advantages in shots (55-31), ground balls (53-24) and face-offs won (24-for-27) in the contest. Ryan Gebhardt led his team with four goals. Max Bailey added three tallies and four assists. Brendan Monteleone scored three. Nicholas Carnovale won 19-of-20 face-offs in the game for the Ducks. He also grabbed a game-high 16 ground balls.
           
Carson White, Jack Braswell, and Danny Tierney all played in goal for Stevens. White made four saves, Braswell added four, and Tierney stopped two. Alesandrini made 13 saves in the Hartwick cage.
           
The Hawks will be making their third straight postseason appearance on Wednesday. They look to avenge a 25-12 loss to the Cardinals which they suffered on April 13.
           
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