ONEONTA, NY - It has been 724 days since the Hartwick Men's Lacrosse Program had competed in an NCAA contest. The Hawks opened up their return to play Tuesday afternoon against a frequent opponent in the Oswego State Lakers. Unlike the previous meeting between these two teams, the Hawks managed to pull away from the Lakers with a convincing 9-6 win to start their 2022 campaign.
Daniel Beltran (Huntington Station, NY/Walt Whitman) and Kyle Pearson (North Haven, CT/North Haven) started the Hawks off with the first possession of the game, winning the first face-off of the day and securing the ground ball. It wasn't until the clock read 9:48 remaining in the first quarter that we saw it change in score. An Evan Johanns (Southington, CT/Southington) pass found the stick of Shayne Kerrigan (Foxborough, MA/Foxborough) in front of the net to put the Hawks up 1-0.
To start the second quarter, a strong move to the cage from Oswego's Garrett Petrelli seemed to be the equalizer, but was quickly waved off due to a crease violation. The Hawks took advantage of this and fired in two more goals of their own, the first from Johanns and the second from Seth Bello (Holliston, MA/Holliston). The game seemed to be all in favor of the Hawks but a goal from Oswego's Rob Nelson brought the game to a two goal difference. Less than a minute later Jacob Morenus (Homer, NY/Homer) answered with a goal of his own to bring the game back to three goal difference. On their first man-up opportunity of the day, Oswego's Weston Gray connected with Gavin Elston to make the game 4-2. It was Johanns with his second goal of the day who snuck it near side pipe with 3:18 left in the second quarter. The goal gave the Hawks a 5-2 edge at the half.
Hartwick's seniors Dylan Ferguson (Baldwin, NY/Baldwin) and Kainen Francis-Thompson (Hogansburg, NY/Massena) started the second half off with a show. A behind-the-back pass from Thompson to Ferguson whose behind-the-back shot hit the twine made the scoreboard read 6-2 with 13:50 left in the third quarter. Exactly 7 minutes later Kerrigan tallied his second goal of the day after a restart off of a Ferguson miss. It seemed to be all Hartwick with 6:50 left in the third quarter. After a few tense minutes on the field, Oswego was put on a man up advantage where their own Weston Gray got his second assist of the day finding Ryan Dumont.
With the scoreboard reading 7-3 in favor of the Hawks at the start of the fourth quarter, a Max Brodman assist to Devon Gerhardt with 11:45 left in the competition made the game 7-4. Oswego's Elston tallied his second goal of the game with 7:20 remaining. It was the Hawks Garrett Frost (Wading River, NY/Shoreham-Wading River) from Zach Orth (North Haven, CT/North Haven) who made the game 8-5 and got the Hawks back on track. The two seniors who started the second-half scoring for the Hawks also ended it. Francis-Thompson once again connected with Ferguson for a quick stick goal to make the score 9-5. Oswego wouldn't stop playing and their own Cameron Tallman made the final score 9-6 with 30 seconds left.
'Wick is next in action on Saturday, March 5th at Wright Stadium against Farmingdale State at 12 pm.
