Poughkeepsie, NY – The Vassar College Men's Lacrosse team evened its Liberty League record and moved to 3-0 at home this season with a hard fought 11-7 victory over Ithaca Saturday afternoon.
Troy Santise (Washington Township, NJ) sparked the victory with six points, while senior defender
Solomon Hess (Brewster, NY) totaled seven caused turnovers.
Saturday's win stops a five-game losing streak to Ithaca and gives Vassar its first Liberty League win since topping Clarkson on April 23, 2022. Vassar improves to 7-2 overall on the season and 1-1 in conference play, while the Bombers drop to 5-3 overall and 0-1 in league action.
How It Happened
- After the two teams traded goals just over a half-minute apart in the middle stages of the opening period, Vassar struck twice in the final two minutes of the quarter to take a 3-1 lead into the second frame.
- Santise broke a 1-1 tie with his first goal of the game at the 2:02 mark with Dan Negron (Mahwah, NJ) following with just three ticks left to finish of the first quarter scoring.
- Vassar opened the second quarter with a 3-1 scoring run to surge in front 6-2 midway through the second frame.
- Patrick Egg (Pittstown, NJ) opened the second period scoring before Baker Morton (West Hartford, VT) and Santise scored just over two minutes apart to give the Brewers a four-goal cushion.
- The visitors sliced into the Vassar lead heading into halftime, scoring three of the final four goals of the first half.
- John Sramac scored for the Bombers with 61 seconds left before the half to bring Ithaca to within 7-5.
- Vassar outshot Ithaca 21-17 in the opening 30 minutes, including 14-11 in shots on goal.
- Face-offs before the break went to the Brewers by a slim 7-6 mark, while Vassar dominated groundballs 22-9.
- Coming out of the intermission, Vassar scored the first three goals of the third frame to build its lead to 10-5.
- Following a TJ Carl (Rochester, NY) marker at the 10:56 mark of the period, Eli Sherman (San Francisco, CA) won the ensuing face-off and potted his third goal of the season just seven seconds later to give the Brewers their largest lead of the game.
- Santise finished off a hat trick with 3:06 left to play between Ithaca goals from Kyle Proctor and Charlie Niebuhr.
For The Brewers
- Santise pushed his team-high in assists to 25 and points to 41 following a six-point afternoon. Santise added four groundballs to the winning effort.
- Negron finished the win with four points, scoring twice and assisting on two other goals.
- Carl pushed his team lead in goals to 22 with a pair of tallies while adding two groundballs.
- Sherman won eight face-offs, collected four groundballs and added a goal.
- Hess led the defensive effort with seven caused turnovers and six groundballs.
- Matteo Roman (Arlington, VA) finished with four forced miscues and four groundballs.
- Ryan Metz (Kenmore, WA) caused two turnovers and secured a pair of groundballs.
- Gavin Arcuri (Westhampton, NY) picked up three groundballs and added an assist.
- Drew Quinn (Garden City, NY) continued a strong junior season with 12 saves in goal in a winning effort.
For The Bombers
- Sramac led the way with two goals and three points to go along with three groundballs.
- Proctor, Niebuhr and Cullen Adams all finished with a goal and an assist.
- Brendan Occhino caused two turnovers and collected two groundballs.
- Chris Sohl led the team with seven face-off wins.
- Cole Corrigan suffered the loss in goal, making 10 saves.
Game Statistics
- Vassar outshot Ithaca 34-30 overall and 21-19 in shots on goal.
- Face-offs went to the Bombers 11-9.
- Vassar controlled the groundball battle 38-18.
- Vassar finished the victory an efficient 19-for-20 in clears.
- Ithaca went 8-for-19 in clearing chances.
What's Next
- Vassar travels to #2/2 RIT on March 30.
- Ithaca heads to Misericordia on Wednesday.
