Men's Lacrosse | 4/30/2019 7:59:00 PM
ONEONTA, NY – The Hartwick Hawks head to Pittsford Wednesday for their third straight appearance in the Empire 8 semifinals. 'Wick, which set a program record with six victories in conference, earned the number three seed and will be hosted by second seed St. John Fisher at Growney Stadium beginning at 5 p.m.
Top seed Stevens hosts fourth seed Nazareth in the other semifinal. The Empire 8 championship is slated for Saturday, May 4 at the highest remaining seed.
The Hawks are 10-4 overall, which is their first 10-win season since 2011. After narrowly dropping their season opener to Oswego, 6-5, Hartwick rattled off eight straight victories to match a program record. The win total included a triple-overtime victory over Farmingdale to start the streak, a 13-7 win over local rival Oneonta, and a 14-13 edging of Nazareth. St. John Fisher stopped the string on April 13 before the Hawks got back on track with conference wins over Utica and Alfred. They closed the regular season with losses to Hamilton and nationally tenth ranked Stevens.
This season, starting attackmen
Kainen Francis-Thompson (Hogansburg, NY/Massena),
Sam Ferguson (Baldwin, NY/Baldwin), and
David Demand (Chittenango, NY/Chittenango) each have over 20 goals and 35 points. Francis-Thompson is tied for seventh in the league in goals scored (34) and ninth in points (48). Ferguson has 26 goals and a team-best 20 assists, ranking ninth in the Empire 8 in assists per game (1.43). Demand has chipped in 22 goals and 17 helpers.
Tim Watson (Wrentham, MA/King Philip Regional) (14g, 9a),
Dylan Ferguson (Baldwin, NY/Baldwin) (15g, 5a),
Chris VanDemark (Painted Post, NY/Corning-Painted Post) (11g, 8a),
Nick Couvaris (Seaford, NY/Seaford) (10g, 5a),
Wyatt Long (Hardwick, NJ/Blair Academy) (8g, 7a),
Alec Lind (Ballston Lake, NY/Burnt Hills-Ballston Lk) (9g, 4a),
Mike Majchrzak (Plantsville, CT/Southington) (8g, 5a), and
Garrison Wojtas (Hauppauge, NY/Hauppauge) (9g, 2a) have also chipped in offensively.
Wojtas has led the defensive unit with team-bests of 118 ground balls and 40 caused turnovers. His ground ball total is tied for the fourth-most in a single season in Hartwick history and he sits fourth in career ground balls with 277. He is third in the Empire 8 in GB's per game (8.43) and ranks 14
th in the country and fourth in the league in caused turnovers per game (2.86). Fellow seniors
Derek Chandler (Ballston Spa, NY/Ballston Spa) (39 GBs, 12 CTs),
Matt Puzo (Apalachin, NY/Vestal) (23 GBs, 10 CTs), and sophomore
Andrew Wright (Mahopac, NY/Mahopac) (15 GBs, 17 CTs) have bolstered the defensive lineup.
Junior goalkeeper
C.J. Alesandrini (Schenectady, NY/Colonie) has had a strong year as he sits third in the conference in save percentage at .581. He is also tied for third in goals against average (8.23) and fourth in saves per game (10.21).
The Hartwick-Fisher game is a rematch from two and a half weeks ago at Growney. After grabbing a 5-3 advantage after the first quarter, the Cardinals pulled away in the second, out-scoring the Hawks 8-0. They extended the advantage to 14 after three quarters before settling on a 25-12 victory. Fisher dropped only one face-off in the first three quarters (29-of-30) with Joe Post winning 31-of-32 for the game and recording 27 ground balls, which is a season-high in Division III. Empire 8 leading goal scorer and point producer, Nicholas Miller, recorded game-highs of six goals and nine points in the contest.
The semifinal is the eighteenth meeting between the two programs. The Cardinals have had the edge with a 12-6 record in those games. The Hawks had won two straight games by a single goal before Fisher's win earlier in the season.
Wednesday marks the fifth appearance in the Empire 8 playoffs in program history for Hartwick. The Hawks lost semifinal meetings with Ithaca in 2004 and Stevens in each of the last two seasons. 'Wick topped RIT 9-8 in its only semifinal win before falling at home in the E8 title game to Nazareth in 2005.
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