By Collin Bolebruch
There’s no sweeter way to start an anticipated season than with a win. And the Cardinals men’s lacrosse did just that.
On Wednesday, Plattsburgh (1-0) beat the SUNY Canton Kangaroos (0-3) by a score of 18-6 in what was SUNY Plattsburgh’s season and home opener.
The Cards are back and scoring with no-holds-barred. The 18 points scored are the most they have netted in a game since March 7, 2020 — almost two years ago. Leading the team in points is first-time captain Stephen Kane with five, closely followed by John Eiseman with three. Just behind them are Zach Gill, Michael Swift, and Matt Trypaluk with two each. Gill dominated in assists with seven, and no one else had more than two.
“Yeah, we expected it. [Kane] over here, definitely puts up numbers,” Eiseman said.
“We finally got [Eiseman] on the board, so he’s gonna start flowing now,” Kane said.
Plattsburgh totaled 33 shots on goal, more than doubling Canton’s 14. Despite winning comfortably, the teams were almost dead-even on turnovers with PSU having 24 to Canton’s 25. For the ‘Roos’, Alex Jacobs was the only multi-point scorer with three and Hunter Olsen was the lone multi-assister, also with three. Canton was also behind in faceoffs, losing 17-9.
“Starting off 1-0 is definitely great but we got a lot to work on, that was not the prettiest game known to man, but again it was good to start off 1-0,” Coach Andrew Hauk said after the game.
The scoring started for Plattsburgh less than a minute into the match. Another few quick goals put the score at 2-2 mid-way through the first quarter. It never got close again. At the half, the Cardinals were up 8-2 after scoring every few minutes and the Roos only had three shots total. Canton only had one goal in the third quarter to Plattsburgh’s seven. The rest of Canton’s goals came in garbage time.
“Probably the biggest takeaway is just playing together as a team for the whole 60 minutes and not getting in super low lows, we can’t get too low we can’t get too high, we just got to stay even the whole game and cruise through it to the dub,” Kane said.
Eiseman agreed with a resounding, “Hell yeah.”
Wednesday’s win is the first in a full slate of games to be played this year. Last week, both coach and players expressed their excitement to be on the field in full capacity again. The fans are back, too — and the players noticed.
“It feels great honestly to be back with full team full energy, no masks and stuff, feels great to be back,” Kane said.
Eisaman also said it’s awesome to finally have an audience to support them.
Plattsburgh’s next game comes on Saturday, March 5 in Vermont to face the Norwich Cadets (1-0), and look to carry the momentum into another win.
“It’s just coming out tomorrow whether we’re outside because of the cold weather policy or whether we’re inside in the film room, it’s just our guys realizing, ‘Alright, after tonight, we’re 0-0,’” Hauk said.
