By: Brayden Peters
BROCKPORT, N.Y. - The Brockport Golden Eagles men’s lacrosse team couldn’t start a winning streak, falling 12-5 at home to the Geneseo Knights. The Golden Eagles made it a closer game compared to last year, where Brockport fell 18-5. In this matchup, turnovers were a killer for Brockport’s offense as they battled to keep up with Geneseo.
Geneseo developed a rhythm on offense very quickly, scoring five unanswered goals in the first quarter. They were able to find openings in Brockport’s defense and get to the hole to score. Because of this, eight of their 10 shots in the quarter were on goal. The Knights leaned on their offensive talent; six of their players are over 20 points this season.
Brockport was kept in check the entire first quarter. Andrew DiPalma struggled at the face-off dot, winning one out of six faceoff attempts. This, along with problems with passing and catching, kept the Golden Eagles in their defensive zone for most of the first quarter. Brockport’s head coach Colin Cornaire was surprised by the number of turnovers his team was giving up.
“It was uncharacteristic,” Cornaire said. “We probably had three of four low passes and when you got a good long defender on you…that certainly didn’t help.”
Brockport had more time in their offensive zone in the second quarter. They went 3-3 on clears in the quarter. Due to this and a few Geneseo turnovers, Brockport created multiple scoring chances. Eventually, the Golden Eagles found the back of the net in the luckiest way possible.
Nate Askin ripped a shot that was right of the net. It then deflected off the helmet of one of Geneseo’s defenders and past goalie Andrew Tittmann.
“Hey, I’ll take it,” Askin said. “I don’t care. I saw it go in the cage and I was like, ‘What the heck was that?’…I’ll celebrate anything if it goes in the cage. I don’t care.”
Brockport continued to cut into the lead. Nick Askin fired a right-side arm shot, hitting the top right corner of the net while Brockport was a man up.
This was the only man up in the half that the Golden Eagles would score on. They had five others but couldn’t get the ball past Tittman.
Although Geneseo’s offense continued to score in the second quarter, Brockport’s defense tightened things up. They were quicker on their slides and their communication improved.
Offensively, the Geneseo goalie didn’t make anything easy for Brockport. Tittman made five saves for a save percentage of 71.4 in the first half.
Geneseo would end the quarter with two unanswered goals of their own, one of them was scored by Robert Boneillo on the man up. With those goals, the Knights had a decently comfortable 7-2 lead entering the second half.
Jack Acker performed well for the Golden Eagles in net, consistently making saves. He made 10 of them and recorded a 58.8 save percentage in the first half. This continued into the third quarter as Brockport held Geneseo to only three goals.
To start the second, Brockport’s offense went silent. Turnovers continued to plague them, taking away multiple scoring chances they could have had. Just like the first quarter, the Golden Eagles were held scoreless in the third.
This would change in the last quarter of play. Brockport opened things up with another Askin goal, giving Geneseo just a 10-3 lead. The Knights went on a two unanswered goal streak right after Askin’s goal. One of the Knights’ goals came from William McCumiskey while they were on the man down.
To close the last ten minutes of the quarter, Brockport scored two more goals to end the game with a 12-5 loss. One of them came from Nick Askin to complete his hat trick. With that goal, he moved into eighth place for the most career goals in Brockport’s history.
“It feels amazing to put the ball in the back of the net,” Nick Askin said. “This allows for recruits to see that you don’t need just two people with 30 goals. You can break out and really excel at this program.”
With the loss, the Golden Eagles fall to 4-10 on the season while the Knights improve to 10-6. In SUNYAC play, Brockport drops to 2-4 while Geneseo improves to 5-1.
Brockport will get ready for their last regular season game on Saturday as they hope to make it into the playoffs. It will be their senior day as they take on Potsdam and possibly the last time the Askin brothers will play together in college.
“I love him (Nick Askin),” Nate Askin said. “I think we had a good year…It’s sad it won’t happen next year, but I feel like I’ve kind of accepted it. We’re just now still enjoying every moment we have in college together. It’s something to tell our kids when we’re older.”
Faceoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.