No. 16 Saints Rout Oswego State 19-3 in Home Opener

by: 

Tara Freeman

First-year student Cody Danforth scored his second goal of the season against the Lakers.

Mar. 24: The No. 16 St. Lawrence University men's lacrosse team used a 12-0 run to open Wednesday's home opener against Oswego State at North Country Field.  The Saints' prolific scoring and stingy defense was too much for the Lakers, who fell 19-3 in the non-conference game.

St. Lawrence improves to 3-1 with the victory, as 12 different players scored for the Scarlet and Brown.  Meanwhile, Oswego falls to 1-4 on the year after being outshot 52-19 and taking seven penalties.

The first quarter was owned by the home team, as St. Lawrence built an 8-0 cushion after just 15 minutes of play.  Senior captain Scott Smith opened the scoring only 1:46 into the contest, and was followed by classmate Nick Woodhull and sophomore Kyle Jacobsen.  First-year student Dave Schoettler added two goals in the stanza, while Smith and sophomores Caldwell Rohrbach and Matt Pope added tallies as well.

Senior defenseman Trevor Scoon scored his first goal of the season to open the second half scoring at 4:21, giving the Saints a 9-0 lead.  First-year student Cody Danforth, senior Drew Osinski and Schoettler then followed with goals to give St. Lawrence its 12-0 advantage with 4:53 to play in the first half.

Oswego State got on the scoreboard at 10:20 of the second quarter, when Brett Sarubbi took a pass from Pat Decker and scored on St. Lawrence senior goalie Andrew Cochran to make it a 12-1 game.  However, Pope answered with a goal to end the first half scoring and send the Saints to the locker room at halftime ahead 13-1.

Sophomore Peter Carpenter opened the second half scoring only 53 seconds in, putting the Scarlet and Brown ahead 14-1.  Though Oswego State's Adam Jean would answer only 31 seconds later, Rohrbach and Jacobson would follow to close the third quarter scoring with the Saints up 16-2. 

Dan Scarazzo scored the lone goal for the Lakers in the fourth quarter at 4:02, while sophomore Steve Cargill picked up a goal for St. Lawrence and classmate James Hutson added the last two tallies of the game to give the Saints a comfortable 19-3 victory. 

Smith (2), Jacobsen, Rohrbach, junior Stephen Vaughn and first-years Justin Ingram and James Wilcox each had an assist for St. Lawrence on Wednesday.  The home team scooped up 43 ground balls to Oswego's 29 and successfully cleared the ball 27-of-30 tries.  Oswego State, which finished 15-of-30 on clears, was 0-for-2 on man-up tries while the Saints scored four man-up goals.

Junior Harry Johnson won 10-of-16 face-offs in the game for the Saints, while Schoettler finished with a game-high three goals.  Cochran picked up the victory in goal having made five saves, though Coach Mahoney was able to play sophomore Matt Ruscio and rookies Jeff Goeke and Jack Nuland throughout the game as well.  Oswego State's Judd Robinson suffered the loss despite making a game-high 10 saves.

The Saints will look to carry their momentum into the weekend, as they head to Skaneateles, NY to square off with No. 12 Nazareth College.  The game between the two nationally-ranked foes, which will take place at Skaneateles High School, is set to begin at 2:00pm on Saturday, March 27.