The Plattsburgh State lacrosse team has entered the final stretch of the regular season, and the Cards’ past two games against Oneonta and Cortland have helped the team progress.
In a hard-fought game against Oneonta, the Cards (7-7,3-2 SUNYAC) secured a 14-7 win and inched one step closer to securing a playoff spot in the SUNYAC tournament.
During the matchup, the Cards saw multiple players have excellent games. Sophomore attackman Ryan Hubbard led the team with five goals, while senior attackman and midfielder Brendan Damm scored four and senior attackman Patrick Nash tallied three.
Before their game against Oneonta, the Cards played Cortland and fell short against the Red Dragons losing 11-9.
While PSUC was not happy with a loss, the team learned a lot from playing Cortland and looked at the positives from the matchup.
Senior attackman and midfielder Brendan Damm said the team did not panic when it was trailing the Red Dragons.
“I was really impressed with the way we kept our composure out there and kept fighting,” Damm said. “We were down five goals at one point then all of a sudden, the tables turned, we scored couple of goals but we just ran out of time at the end.”
The Cards fought hard until the end as they started the game slow trailing the Red Dragons 8-5 at the end of the first half. Cortland proceeded to outscore PSUC 3-2 and extend its lead to 11-7 heading into the final quarter. While PSUC started to make a push in the fourth, the Cards could score only two goals, which was not enough to defeat the Red Dragons.
Senior Attackman Patrick Nash said the team did really well overall in the game against Cortland, showing the hard-working mindset the team always aims to apply.
“We were down five goals, we did not give up and we were resilient,” Nash said. “We moved the ball well, we trusted each other and some players got more minutes than usual. It showed how deep our team is.”
May said the team was zoned in on this game and nothing was going to deprive it of that.
“The team focused on playing their game, and they did not pay attention to the trash talking,” May said. “We were supportive of each other every play down the field.”
Damm said PSUC needs to turn the Cortland loss into fuel for its next game.
“We need to ride off the momentum from the Cortland game. We played them to a two goal game, which is the closest they played anyone in SUNYAC’s,” Damm said. “So we know we can run with any team in the conference because we see ourselves as a top-two seed in the conference, and we want to show that.”
As the Cards prepare for upcoming games, Damm said the team has been fine-tuning its abilities.
“We have been doing some game planning for our next game.” Damm said. “We have been working on the little things like running up and down the field and pushing the tempo.”
As the regular season concludes, the Cards play at home against Oswego tomorrow at 1 p.m. This upcoming conference matchup is senior day, and May said the game will be very important for the seniors.
“It will be a great way to recognize the seniors who have put their heart, blood and sweat into this program and who have brought us to where we are now competing on a national level,” May said. ”It is great to have a day where we recognize those guys and everything they have done for this program.”
Email Adonys Temple at adonys.temple@cardinalpointsonline.com
