ITHACA, N.Y. -- The fifth-ranked men's lacrosse (15-2) team defeated St. John Fisher (9-6) Friday afternoon 10-8, in the semifinal round of the Empire 8 Championship Tournament. Sophomore Ben Connery (Homer/Homer) recorded a career high nine saves, eight of which came in the second half, in his first career win.

 

Juniors Matt Nelligan (Pingree School/Rowley, Mass.) and Craig Lepiane (West Irondequoit/Rochester) led the Bombers with three goals and one assist each, and sophomore Mike Cintineo (Honeoye Falls-Lima/Honeoye Falls) tallied two goals. Junior Logan Bobzien (Arapahoe/Centennial, Colo.) and sophomore Matt Ruhnke (Brien McMahon/Norwalk, Conn.) recorded one goal each in the win.

 

Ithaca tallied 43 ground balls, with nine from junior Brandon Rose (Rush-Henrietta/Rochester) and 16 faceoff wins on 22 attempts.

 

Freshman Chris Schmidt (West Genesee/Camillus) led St. John Fisher with four goals and classmate Dave Malone (Penfield/Penfield) recorded two goals. Senior Matt Hargather (Fairport/Fairport) notched two goals and classmate Brian Cummings (West Genesee/Syracuse) made 19 saves in goal for the Cardinals.

 

The Bombers began the scoring just 32 seconds into the game with an unassisted goal from Cintineo. St. John Fisher evened the contest at six a side on a goal from Malone with 18 seconds left before the half. Nelligan scored just 10 seconds later to put Ithaca up 7-6 at the half. The two teams traded goals in the third and Cintineo’s goal at 8:20 in the fourth gave the Bombers a 10-7 lead, the only three goal lead of the game.