Albany, NY —The Sage Colleges' men's lacrosse team hosted the Cardinals of St. John Fisher College in an Empire 8 Conference contest Saturday afternoon at the Plumeri Sports Complex. SJFC collected a 26-4 win to finish the 2019 regular-season with a 14-2 record and a 7-1 mark in the Empire 8. Sage, which just wrapped their first varsity season of men's lacrosse under the direction of Head Coach Ryan Lanigan, produced a mark of 8-9 overall and 2-6 in the league. With their 7-1 record in the league, SJFC secured the No. 2 seed in the upcoming Empire 8 Men's Lacrosse Tournament.
Sophomore Nicholas Miller (Ithaca, NY/Ithaca) added a team-leading seven points on three goals with four assists. On the year, Miller leads the Cardinals with his 92 points on 65 goals and a 27 assists. Five different players from SJFC added three goals in the action including rookie Ian Evans (Jamesville, NY/Lafayette), who had six points on three goals and three assists, while rookie John Depetres (Hilton, NY/Hilton) also added six points with his hat trick and three assists.
Sage's sophomore middie Sherrod Banton (Brooklyn, NY/John Dewey) scored at the 12:54 mark in the third quarter for his 10th goal of the year and broke up the shutout bid by SJFC. Rookie midfielder Adam Parker (Quechee, VT/Hartford) also scored, while rookie Matt Fisher (Niskayuna, NY/South Colonie) scored on a feed from Eric Fairhurst (Wooster, OH/Wooster) for his team-leading 34th goal of the year. Junior midfielder Adante Simpson (Copiague, NY/Copiague) added his first goal of the year in the final minute of the action to help the Gators on the afternoon.
Freshmen Brandon Maresca (Landing, NJ/Roxbury) made eight saves for the Gators in 30 and freshman Troy Schweitzer (Pittsfield, MA/Taconic) stopped seven saves in his 30 minutes of work. SJFC's sophomore goalie Brandon Moore (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaguia) earned the win, making two saves with one goal allowed in 45 minutes of work as he stands at 3-0. Junior Nicholas Hallinan (Elbridge, NY/Jordan-Elbridge) made three saves in 15 minutes of service.
Sage honored their lone senior prior to the action, midfielder Ryan Adamczak (Schenectady, NY/Guilderland). On the season, he added a .498 face-off win percentage, while collecting 57 ground balls in 17 starts.
The Gators strung together a three-game win streak on the year, having also posted two conference victories all in their first varsity campaign. Sage had two players finish with 50 or more points as rookie Robert Martin (Saugerties, NY/Saugerties) added 53 points on 19 goals with 34 assists, while rookie David Baraniuk (Budd Lake, NJ/Mount Olive) collected 51 points on 33 goals with 18 assists before suffering an injury that kept him out of the line-up for the Gators' last four games.