ALBANY, NY – The men's lacrosse team was on the road for the conference opener at Sage College tonight and took the game easily, 19-9.  This was the first conference game for Sage as well, and their record dropped to 5-5, 0-1.  Hartwick improved to 4-2, 1-0 on the season.
 
Shayne Kerrigan and Kainen Francis-Thompson led the way for the Hawks with 3 goals each.  Cooper Francis, Garrett Frost, Tyler Nocito, and Pete Conley netted 2 each.  Evan Johanns, Thomas Concannon, Seth Bello, Tyler Coleman, and Zack Orth added the others for Hartwick.  Conley added 3 assists and Francis-Thompson had 2.  Kyle McKee earned the win with 11 saves in just under 53 minutes of action.  Jared Tiong-Smith came into the game for the final 7:15 and stopped 1 shot.
 
Sage jumped out to a quick 2 goal lead after scoring twice in the opening minute of the game.  Hartwick evened the score with 2 quick goals of their own in less than 20 seconds after Johanns took a Conley pass for the first and then Francis connected on the next.  Sage once again went on the offense as they scored the next two but, yet again, Hartwick scored twice to even the game before the final whistle of the quarter.
 
Tied at 4 entering the second, the Hawks came out on fire, outscoring the Gators 4-1 to take an 8-5 lead into the break.  As has been the case much of this season, Hartwick's 3^rd quarter was much stronger than their opponent, and they finished the period having scored 8 to Sage's 1.  The teams traded 3 goals in the final 15 minutes and Hartwick sealed the game 19-9.
 
Hartwick's Daniel Beltran secured 14-25 faceoff wins and Liam Downey was a near perfect 6-7 on his.  Hartwick was 2-4 on man-up opportunities and were successful in killing off all 4 of Sage's man-up attempts on the evening. 
 
Hartwick continues conference play on the road at Keuka next Saturday, April 2^nd, at 4:00PM.