ITHACA, N.Y. – The 10^th-ranked Ithaca College men's lacrosse team won its second straight contest over a Rochester-area team when it powered past St. John Fisher College 19-10 on Wednesday afternoon at Higgins Stadium. The victory was an excellent start to the five-game homestand, which marks the final sprint of the regular season. The win improves IC's record to 10-2 on the year and 4-1 in Empire 8 play, while Fisher falls to 7-5 and 2-2 in conference action.
 
Nine different Ithaca players found the back of the net in the contest. Leading the way was junior Jake Cotton who paced the contest with a game-high five points. He tallied his second hat trick of the season, first three-goal effort since the victory over Western New England, while also registering two assists. His pair of helpers brought Cotton to 108 for his career, just three shy of tying Barry Cohen '80 for second on the program's all-time list.
 
Senior John Januszkiewicz and sophomore Will Witter also posted hat-trick efforts for the Bombers. Witter scored four times for IC, which was a game-high for either side. Januszkiewicz remained hot, scoring three goals for the fourth time over the last five games. The three scores helped the IC senior become the Bombers' sixth player to reach 200 career points in program history. Januszkiewicz sits at 200-even following today's game, scoring 142 goals and 58 assists through 64 career games.
 
Also registering multi-goal efforts for Ithaca were senior Jack Shumway, junior Kaelan Fitzpatrick, and freshman Dan Lee. Shumway collect three total points, scoring twice and adding an assist. The three-point outing lifts Shumway within two points of the 200-career-point milestone. Fitzpatrick and Lee each finished with two scoring tallies.
 
Sophomores Conner Crosson and Josh Della Puca each finished with two points, registering a goal and an assist apiece. Fellow second year Brendan King scored the other IC goal. Sean Ferrito, Keith Morrissey, Stephen Morrell, Greg Drillock and Owen Smith each posted a lone assist.
 
Defensively, the Bombers were led by senior long-stick Cody Swing, who finished with four caused turnovers and four ground-balls. Freshman Aaron McCartney forced three caused turnovers and picked up four grounders, while junior Winton Wenham posted two caused turnovers and five ground-balls.
 
The Bombers dominated the faceoff circle, winning 22-of-32 draws. Senior Grant Osadchey went 12-for-16 on the draw, while corralling nine ground-balls. The effort moved him into seventh place on the all-time list with 262 career ground-balls. Junior Steven Landspurg won 8-of-14 faceoffs, while senior Austin Smith went 2-for-2 in the circle.
 
Senior goalie Jack Deragon picked up his ninth win of the season. He stopped five shots in 45-minutes, before relinquishing the net to senior Justin Isaacs to begin the fourth quarter. Isaacs denied one Cardinal shot and corralled three ground-balls in his 15 minutes of action.
 
The Bombers took early control of the game, outscoring St. John Fisher 6-1 in the opening frame. Although the Cardinals got on the board with the game's first game when Wagner found the back of the net 58-seconds in on a man-up opportunity, IC answered in short order with a dominant opening period. Shooting low, Fitzpatrick and Januszkiewicz scored 1:18 apart to lift IC to a lead it would not relinquish the rest of the game.
 
Cotton gave Ithaca a 3-0 lead with a top-shelf laser into the upper left, while Januszkiewicz netted his second of the game on an athletic tumbling shot, as he was getting impeded on a strong incursion to the Fisher crease. Cotton and Witter tallied in the final 3:09 to close out the period.
 
The goals kept coming for IC in the second frame. Shumway scored both of his goals in the opening 2:43 of the quarter. On the first, Shumway ripped a bounce shot into the twince, while sniped a laser into the bottom right, while IC worked on a man-up opportunity just 2:01 later. Witter and Fitzpatrick also tacked on goals following Shumway's second score to up IC's lead to 10-2.
 
Januszkiewicz and Della Puca capped the first-half scoring for Ithaca, helping the home side to a 12-3 lead at the break. Januszkiewicz scored his 200^th career point on the goal, juking to his left, before firing a shot into the lower right of the cage. Della Puca bested Fisher's keeper, Tanner Swan, five-hole to finish off the scoring in the half.
 
Ithaca outscored the Cardinals 5-3 in the third period. Witter scored twice in the period with the first finishing off his hat trick. King, Crosson, and Cotton added goals during the frame. Lee scored both of his goals in the fourth frame.
 
Ithaca returns to action on Tuesday, April 18^th, when it welcomes RIT for a huge non-conference battle at Higgins Stadium. Opening faceoff is 4:00 p.m.