The Plattsburgh State men’s lacrosse team bounced back from a loss against Cortland on Senior Day last Saturday with a photo-finish win against Oneonta Wednesday.
The Cardinals sealed their 12-11 win over the Red Dragons with a man-up goal from senior attacker Connor Wolff with 6.2 seconds remaining in regulation.
PSUC started off from the gates slow at Red Dragon Field. It gave up three goals while scoring none in the first quarter. Entering the fourth, the Cards trailed 9-6 before trading two goals with Oneonta.
PSUC scored three straight goals to tie the game at 11 apiece before Oneonta’s Logan Michalisin was given a penalty for pushing with 11 seconds remaining in the game. That’s when Wolff won the game for the Cards.
“It’s one of the toughest days of the season,” head coach Joe May said, “We gotta wake up on a Wednesday, miss class all day and then drive three and a half hours to play a good Oneonta team. It’s no excuse, but that’s a tough ask.”
Sticking to the game plan was key for the win, junior Kyle Smith said.
“We came out kinda flat,” he said. “It was a long bus drive to Oneonta on a Wednesday night. We didn’t play our best lacrosse I’d say for the majority of the first three quarters. We stuck around and kept fighting and we never gave up on each other. We believed in our teammates, believed in our system.”
The slow start is something May highlighted for his team, saying the team needs to perform from the start to have a chance to win out its remaining games.
“We got back in it the right way and made some big plays, but we certainly didn’t put ourselves in the best position to win that game,” May said. “The ball rolled our way, and that’s kind of how it goes sometimes. We can’t be banking on that going forward. We just need to come play for 60 minutes. We didn’t do that [Wednesday], but we’re going to have to do that this Saturday against a good Oswego team.”
Heading into Oswego, May is looking for his team to take care of the ball and reduce turnovers against an experienced team.
Last Saturday, the Cards lost to first-place Cortland 6-15. Though they lost, the game was a reminder for the seniors on how this season will be their last.
“It gave us a wake-up call,” senior Michael Van Bommel said. “We’re not going to be playing this game for the rest of our lives. We’re trying to make the best of it while we can.”
Heading to the final stretch of the season, May wants the Oneonta win to serve as a lesson.
“We won’t get this lucky again,” he said. “You can’t afford to start a game that slow and expect to win.”
