PITTSFORD, NY – Hartwick's men's lacrosse team saw its season come to a close on Wednesday evening as the third seeded Hawks fell to the second-seeded St. John Fisher Cardinals by a final score of 22-8 at Growney Stadium.
           
St. John Fisher, as it did in the regular season meeting, dominated the face-off circle going 14-for-14 in the opening half. The Cardinals got on the board after capitalizing on the first man-up opportunity of the game as Ian Evans found the net from Tucker O'Donnell at the 10:39 mark. The Hawks answered three minutes, 20 seconds later as Chris VanDemark (Painted Post, NY/Corning-Painted Post) set up a pass to Tim Watson (Wrentham, MA/King Philip Regional) and he buried it low to even the score.
           
Two minutes after, The Cardinals grabbed the lead on Chance Gates' goal. The Hawks nearly tied it later as Watson rang a shot off the post. Instead, Evans connected with leading scorer Nicholas Miller for the Cardinals' third goal and a 3-1 edge. The quarter would end with Fisher holding a 13-7 edge in shots.
           
Danny Turck's laser off a Miller pass made it a 4-1 game 44 ticks in the second quarter. Mike Majchrzak (Plantsville, CT/Southington) came back at 1:53 from VanDemark to cut the deficit to 4-2 for the Hawks. Gates' second of the game on a Zach Wagner assist just over 30 seconds later put Fisher up 5-2.
           
It remained a 5-2 game until 6:16 remained in the half. Miller scored his second of the day to build the margin to four. Another man-up allowed Wagner to get his 27^th goal of the season with Jack Mulvihill assisting to make it 7-2. Twenty-four seconds later Miller was at it again with his third tally for an 8-2 advantage.
           
VanDemark stopped the four-goal Fisher rally for 'Wick with 3:07 to go in the half. Watson assisted on the play. Just a minute later, though, Wagner got one back for the Cardinals for a 9-3 lead and that's the way the half ended. Fisher would hold a 28-16 advantage in shots and registered 20 ground balls to the Hawks' 14. Sam Ferguson (Baldwin, NY/Baldwin) led the Hawks with six shots in the opening 30 minutes. Watson added four.
           
'Wick got the opening goal of the third quarter at 12:49. David Demand (Chittenango, NY/Chittenango) scored off a Kyle Pearson (North Haven, CT/North Haven) feed. Joe Post, however, won his 16^th face-off in a row and scored seven seconds later, but the goal was wiped out and a 3-minute non-releasable penalty ensued for an illegal stick. The Hawks were unable to capitalize and Fisher instead added a man-down goal for a 10-4 lead. It would mark the first of 11 straight tallies as the Cardinals pulled away.
           
Later in the quarter at 7:08, William Fell cleared and fired home his first career goal to increase the margin to seven and Post made it 12-4 only 16 seconds after. Miller's fifth of the day extended the Fisher lead with 4:10 remaining in the third. He tacked on his sixth 1:12 later to make it a 10-goal game. Mulvihill and O'Donnell each scored with less than a minute left for a 16-4 St. John Fisher advantage heading into the fourth period.
           
A goal from Gates and two straight from Wagner less than five minutes into the fourth gave the Cardinals a 15-goal lead, at 19-4. At nearly the midway point, Jordan Depetres scored Fisher's 20^th of the afternoon.
           
Alec Lind (Ballston Lake, NY/Burnt Hills Ballston Lake) got one back for the Hawks from a Ferguson assist with 7:18 to play. Fisher answered for SJFC with two straight before Majchrzak tallied from Demand at the 3:13 mark. Watson scored at 1:21 and Ferguson closed out the scoring with his final career goal with 46 seconds to play.
           
The Cardinals held a 55-30 edge in shots and a 47-25 advantage in ground balls. Fisher would win 32-of-34 draws on the day.
           
Miller (6g, 2a) and Wagner (4g, 2a) combined for 10 goals and four assists to lead the hosts. Gates added three tallies.
           
Watson and Majchrzak each had two goals and an assist for the Hawks. VanDemark added a goal and two helpers, and Ferguson and Demand contributed one goal and one assist. C.J. Alesandrini (Schenectady, NY/Colonie) finished the game with 13 saves in the Hawks' cage.
           
Garrison Wojtas (Hauppauge, NY/Hauppauge) ended the game with eight ground balls to finish with 126 for the season (3^rd all-time). He ends up with 285 for his career (4^th all-time). He also had four caused turnovers. Lind contributed four caused turnovers and four ground balls.
           
The game marked the final one in the careers of the Hawk seniors Michael Castrogiovanni (Oyster Bay, NY/Oyster Bay), Derek Chandler (Ballston Spa, NY/Ballston Spa), Ferguson, Wyatt Long (Hardwick, NJ/Blair Academy), Matt Puzo (Apalachin, NY/Vestal), VanDemark and Wojtas.
           
The Hawks close out their season with a final record of 10-5. Hartwick set a program record for Empire 8 wins, tied a program benchmark with eight consecutive victories, qualified for the postseason for the third consecutive year, and hit the 10-win mark for the first time since 2011.
           
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