By: Brayden Peters
BROCKPORT, N.Y. - The last time the Brockport Golden Eagles men's lacrosse team faced the Potsdam Bears, Brockport fell on April 27 of last year at home in overtime 11-10. Both teams yesterday entered overtime tied at 10 apiece, but the Golden Eagles came out on top to get the 11-10 victory. Freshman attackman Peter McGowan buried a left-handed shot into the top left corner of the cage with almost two minutes left in the frame. Senior midfielder Nate Askin was given an assist on McGowan's goal.
"I was just happy Nate gave me the ball," McGowan said. "It was a whole team effort. We played our most unselfish game today."
Three Golden Eagles were tied for the most points on the team in the contest. Sophomore attackman Marc Zappulla (zero + three), Askin (two + one) and graduate attackman Carson Colucci (two + one) all ended the day with three points.
Senior Jack Acker was given the start in net for Brockport. He ended the day with 20 saves for a 69 save percentage. Sophomore Jared Kulik filled in for Acker temporarily after he was penalized for slashing with 7:37 left in the first frame. Kulik gave up one goal while Potsdam was on the man up.
"It was tough, but as Fios (Brockport head coach Nick Fiorentino) told me multiple times, just good body positivity," Acker said. "That's what I heard in the back of my head and a couple times I screwed up on the clears and just held it down. They come out with the first shot, it's a bouncer right to my stick, I was like 'Alright, this is going to be a fun day for me."
Although the Golden Eagles took eight penalites in the game, they went seven-for-eight in killing off the Bears' man up. Brockport was penalized for an illegal body check, pushing and unnecessary roughness twice in the game.
"I think we got to come right out in practice and really focus on that," Fiorentino said. "How many times in practice are we playing hard and having pushes in the backs...that's where it starts is in practice, so we're going to start there."
Two minutes into the first quarter, Brockport kicked off the scoring thanks to Colucci. While he was in the hole, he fired a low-to-low right-handed shot into the bottom left corner of the net. Senior midfielder Jack Rice was given credit for the assist.
Less than a minute later, Potsdam would respond thanks to senior attackman Cobie Cree. Similar to Colucci's goal, Cree fired a low-to-low right-handed shot from the hole into the bottom right corner of the net.
Just over a minute after Cree's goal, Brockport would get the lead back to make it a 2-1 game. Senior midfielder Nick Maslin fired a sidearm right-handed shot that stung the top left corner of the cage.
That lead wouldn't last long for the Golden Eagles. Junior attackman Billy Kozloski sniped the top left corner of the cage off a left-handed shot on the man-up after Acker was penalized.
The back and forth scoring would continue as a little over a minute later, Brockport would snap the 2-2 tie and get the lead back thanks to freshman attackman Pierson Jacobs. He buried a right-handed shot past junior goalie Saka Thompson and into the bottom left corner of the cage. Zappulla was given an assist for the goal. Thompson would go on to make six saves for a 36.3 save percentage in the game.
Potsdam would prevent the Golden Eagles from taking their 3-2 lead into the second quarter with under a minute left in the first frame. Kozloski found open space in the hole and sniped a left-handed shot past Acker's stick side to tie the game back up again.
At the end of the quarter, the Bears led Brockport 10-to-nine in shots.
The Golden Eagles would start the second quarter with a bang, scoring four unanswered goals to give them a 7-3 lead with 4:31 left in the frame. Potsdam once again would squeeze out another goal before the end of the quarter. Senior midfielder Drew Rose cut to the cage and found the bottom right corner of the net on a right-handed shot.
Just like the first quarter, the Bears outshot Brockport again, but this time nine-to-seven.
The Golden Eagles would open up the second half countering Rose's second quarter goal. Colucci got right in front of the net and tucked the ball into the top right corner of the cage over Thompson's stick. Zappulla was given credit for the assist.
Potsdam would begin to build momentum that they couldn't generate much of in the first half. The team would score three unanswered goals to cut the Golden Eagles once 8-4 lead to 8-7 1:44 left in the quarter.
With almost 40 seconds left in the third frame, the Bears turned the ball over. Zappulla would feed the ball to Jacobs, who was cutting to the net off of the whistle, from the left wing and buried a shot into the top right corner of the cage while the defense was caught napping.
For the third frame, Potsdam doubled Brockport's shot total, leading them 14-to-seven.
The tables started to turn once more in the fourth quarter. The Bears would score three unanswered goals to take their first lead of the game, going up 10-9 with 3:19 left on a left-handed shot from Cree.
Brockport was able to get posession of the ball with under a minute left as Potsdam couldn't score before their shot clock ran out. Fiorentino would call a timeout to set up a play. With almost 25 seconds left in the fourth quarter, Askin would get around two picks up top near the restraining line and stung the top left corner on a sidearm right-handed shot.
"Coach made a really great play and before that, I asked him if I can get a sweep going left and he trusted me," Askin said. "He had a great play with a few picks and we were able to get it done."
No one would score before the end of the frame, sending the contest into overtime. The Bears outshot the Golden Eagles 14-to-five in the fourth quarter.
Brockport would go on to win 11-10 thanks to McGowan and the Golden Eagles outshot Potsdam two-to-zero in overtime.
The Golden Eagles improved to 2-2 on the season and they sit in sixth in the Empire 8. As for the Bears, they dropped to 1-1 and are in third in the SUNYAC.
Brockport will prepare to host Oswego State and former teammate sophomore attackman Logan Postel next Wednesday. Face-off is scheduled for 4 p.m.
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