PITTSFORD, N.Y. —The red-hot Ithaca College men's lacrosse team extended its winning streak to nine Wednesday afternoon, earning a dominant 16-5 win over St. John Fisher College on the turf field at Growney Stadium.
Ithaca (11-1, 4-0 Empire 8) is in the midst of its longest winning streak since the 2009 squad opened the season 9-0.
Junior
John Januszkiewicz eclipsed 100 career goals in the win and finished with two goals for Ithaca, which is ranked 11th in the Nike/Lacrosse Magazine top 20 poll, and 12th in the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association's (USILA) top 20 poll.
Januszkiewicz, a two-time All-Empire 8 selection, reached the career milestone when he scored Ithaca's first goal of the game off a feed from sophomore
Jake Cotton 2:08 into the contest.
Cotton finished with three goals and three assists, and junior
Jack Shumway scored five points on four goals with an assist as IC scored 15 or more goals for the 11th time in 12 games. Cotton has scored five or more points in each of the last eight games.
Senior
Michael Walker handed out three assists, sophomore
Stephen Morrell scored two goals with an assist, and senior
Eli Gobrecht, and freshman
Josh Della Puca added two goals apiece in the win.
The Bombers, who entered play ranked fourth nationally in scoring defense (5.36 goals per game), have outscored their foes 158-49 during the winning streak.
Ithaca won 70.8 percent of its faceoffs (17 of 24), led by sophomore
Steven Landspurg, who won 9 of 11, and junior
Grant Osadchey, won won 8 of 12 faceoffs.
Osadchey won seven groundballs and Walker scooped up six groundballs for Ithaca, which enjoyed a 33-23 edge in groundballs, and 49-23 in shots.
Senior
Scott Sidnam, the two-time Empire 8 Goalie of the Year, made six saves while allowing four goals in the win as he ran his record to 11-1.
The Bombers actually trailed 1-0 against the Cardinals (5-6, 2-2) on a goal from Nick Papayanakos 2:01 into the game. Ithaca won the ensuing faceoff, and after a groundball pickup from sophomore
Greg Drillock, Cotton connected with Januszkiewicz for the equalizer.
That started a 13-0 run for the Bombers spanning the first, second, and third quarters. The Ithaca defense, led by Gobrecht, junior
Cody Swing, and sophomores
Keith Morrissey and
Winston Wenham, held Fisher scoreless for nearly 36 minutes.
Della Puca and Morrell (man-up goal) scored 80 seconds apart for a 3-1 lead, and Gobrecht and Della Puca added goals later in the opening stanza as IC took a 5-1 lead into the second.
Shumway kick-started a 5-0 second quarter for the Bombers, scoring 2:54 into the quarter for a 6-1 lead. Gobrecht, Shumway, and Drillock each added goals in a span of 1:57 for a 9-1 lead, and Walker set up Shumway for a tally with 2:14 remaining in the opening half as Ithaca took a 10-1 lead into halftime.
The Bombers scored the first three goals of the third quarter, all by Cotton, during a span of 1:43. Three different players — Morrell, Walker, and freshman
Brendan King — assisted on Cotton's third-quarter goals.
The scoreless streak ended on Matthew Condon's man-up goal halfway through the quarter, but IC closed out the Cardinals for its eighth straight win against Fisher.
The Bombers host Empire 8 foe Houghton College at 1 p.m. Saturday in the final home game of the regular season.
