By Nicholas Serrata, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Freshman Adam Drypolcher is Brockport’s top goal scorer with 13 goals in four games. Against Cazenovia, Drypolcher scored four times

Eagles castigate Cazenovia mercilessly
By Dan Longnecker
STAFF WRITER

This past week was a bit of a roller coaster ride for the SUNY Brockport men’s lacrosse team. After starting the season with a big win at Alfred, the Golden Eagles continued their winning ways, defeating Washington and Jefferson 10-5 in a game that was tied 4-4 at halftime.

Three days later, Brockport’s game against familiar foe St. John Fisher was postponed due to the weather. From there, the team went 1-1, making their record 3-1 overall.

The Golden Eagles were on the road once again Wednesday, March 21, this time against the No. 2 ranked team in Division III — RIT. The game was originally scheduled to be played at Brockport but was moved to RIT due to unplayable field conditions. The outcome of this game was determined fairly quickly.

In the first quarter, RIT built a comfortable 6-1 lead. Brockport calmed down the Tigers’ potent offense in the second quarter, holding them to one goal, making the halftime score 7-2.

Trailing big late in the game, Brockport fired in the last three goals of the game, including one with just a second remaining, to make the score a little more respectable. ­11-5 was the final.

 “I thought we played OK, but we have to play a lot better,” Brockport head coach Ben Wineburg said. “We had some bad mistakes in the early minutes of the game and when you have mistakes against a very good team like RIT, they will capitalize. And they did.”

After the midweek defeat, the Golden Eagles traveled again on Saturday, March 24 to face Cazenovia at a neutral site — Nazareth College.

The earlier loss to RIT didn’t seem to have much of an effect on the players as they cruised in this match-up. Brockport wasted little time, scoring seven goals and holding the opposition to zero in the first quarter.

After increasing the lead to nine, Brockport went into the half with a 10-1 lead. The Golden Eagles went on to record their third win of the season with a convincing 13-2 win over the Wildcats.

Dominick Anthony, Matt McKenney, Danny Dressman, Andy Behm, Joe Gomez and Bill Keating all recorded one goal in the contest. Sophomore midfielder Brad Olzinski did his part contributing three. Attackman Pat Reilly unselfishly assisted his teammates four times in the game.

In goal, Matt Staalesen, Apostolos Hatzigiannidis and Tom Keenan all found playing time in the cage making a total of 13 saves.

Freshman attackman Adam Drypolcher has been the leading scorer for the Golden Eagles since the beginning of the season. Drypolcher continued to rack up more points on his resumé on Saturday, ending with a total of four goals and one assist against Cazenovia.

 “Adam has had a solid start to the season and we hope he keeps it up,” Wineburg said about Drypolcher’s performance.

The Golden Eagles are in action today, March 28 as they travel to Medaille to face the hosts at 4 p.m. Certainly a 4-1 start to the season is something that Wineburg and the team look forward to accomplishing.

Behm commented on the Brockport’s performance so far this season and what’s different about this team from past years.

“In my opinion, I think we have a lot of good, young players that came in here and are able to contribute right away,” Behm said. “Also, we are a much smarter and patient team this year. In past years we always had a few good players but were always missing one piece. I think now we have all the pieces to have a successful season.”

As the season progresses and tougher teams come along, it will be interesting to see if the team can live up to their expectations.