Albany, NY—Freshman midfielder David Baraniuk (Budd Lake, NY/Mount Olive) scored five goals and dished out two assists to lead The Sage Colleges to a 14-3 men's lacrosse win over Mitchell College at ACP Field Monday afternoon. The Gators now have a winning record in their first season of play (3-2) while the Mariners are 1-5.
Freshman attack Matt Fisher (Niskayuna, NY/Colonie) tallied four times with an assist and freshman midfielder Robert Martin (Saugerties, NY/Saugerties) had two goals and added two assists for the Gators. Freshman attack Eric Fairhurst (Wooster, OH/Wooster) scored twice and freshman midfielder Reggie Dumas (Staten Island, NY/Susan E. Wagner) scored a goal for Sage, while freshman midfielder Shea Obado (Spotswood, NJ/Spotswood) had three assists. The starting goalkeeper, freshman Brandon Maresca (Landing, NJ/Roxbury), made five saves in the first half for the win. Fellow freshmen Michael Capitelli (Oceanside, NY/Oceanside) and Troy Schweitzer (Pittsfield, MA/Taconic) each played 15 minutes and Capitelli made three saves while Schweitzer stopped one.
Ethan LePain led Mitchell with a goal and an assist, and Jade Shields and Nick Loris scored one each while Jacob Anderson added an assist. Marcel Quinlan stopped 11 shots in playing the full game in net for the Mariners.
Sage had a 40-28 shot advantage and had 20 more ground balls (45-25). The hosts won 17 of the 21 faceoffs and converted two of four man-ups.
LePain opened the scoring with 6:47 left in the first quarter, but Sage tied it 43 seconds later on Baraniuk's first score of the day. Sage led 2-1 after the first and leading 3-2, scored the final six goals of the first half for a 9-2 lead at halftime. Sage led by as much as 11 (13-2) after Fisher scored three straight in the third quarter, and both teams scored once in the final quarter. Fisher's third straight score in the third period gave him 12 goals on the year. Baraniuk and Fairhurst each finished the day with a season total of 11 goals.
Sage continues a busy stretch at Wells College Tuesday, March 19 at 4 p.m. It will be the third game in four days for the Gators. Mitchell is at Purchase on Wednesday, March 20 at 7 p.m.