The Oswego State men's lacrosse team earned its first league victory in a low-scoring, defensive 5-3 battle at Geneseo on Sunday afternoon. With the win, the Lakers are 7-4 overall and 1-3 in the SUNYAC while the Knights fall to 6-5, 1-2.
Neither team was able to score in the opening quarter but Oswego broke onto the board with back-to-back goals a little more than two minutes apart, early in the second. Caleb Alford began the spurt with an unassisted goal at 13:21. Just 2:09 later, Kyle Bacon scored in the same fashion, finding the back of the net without any help to make it a 2-0 Laker lead. With 2:34 left in the first half, Geneseo finally found the board to make it a 2-1 tilt at the break.
In the third quarter, Alex Sprague-Getsy found Jarrod Wilkom for a tally at 5:40 before the Knights scored to end the third and begin the fourth, evening the game at 3-3. It would be the last time Geneseo was able to generate points, as the Laker defense held their opponent off the board for the final 13 minutes.
Oswego's defensive stinginess gave way to a pair of goals down the stretch to secure the first conference triumph. Wilkom played the role of distributor at 12:29, finding Dan Doolan for the eventual game-winning goal. Four minutes later, Wilkom was back at scoring, going unassisted to put the game out of reach at 8:06.
At the X, Kyle O'Connor was solid all afternoon, winning 66.7% (8-for-12) of his faceoffs. Those extra possessions coupled with Kevin O'Donnell's 12 saves to just three goals allowed frustrated Geneseo throughout the 60 minutes.
The Laker defense also caused seven turnovers, with Mark McElroy and Seamus Burns each having two apiece. Teddy Phillips, Adam Burlew and Bobby Emerson each turned over the Knights once.
In the loose ball department, Phillips paced Oswego by collecting four while McElroy and Tyler Nason each gathered three.
Oswego will now play its final nonconference game of the season when it travels to SUNY Canton for a 4 p.m. game on Wednesday.
