ONEONTA, N.Y. – The 13^th-ranked Ithaca College men's lacrosse team returned to the road on Wednesday afternoon when it put its perfect record on the line against SUNY Oneonta. The Bombers used a first-half flurry to power past the Red Dragons for a 13-5 victory to run their record to 6-0 on the year, as the team heads into the meat of its Liberty League slate.
 
The final score line and team statistics did not tell the whole story from this contest, as the Bombers dominated the opening 30-minutes. Continuing its trend of fast starts, Ithaca raced out to a 10-0 lead at the break, out-shooting Oneonta 25-to-10 in the opening half. The visitors were able to claw back into the game in the second session, but never fully threatened the end result, while the Bombers were able to get invaluable game reps for a large number of its talented and young reserves.
 
Two newcomers led the way for Ithaca on attack, as sophomore transfer Ryan Ozsvath and freshman Connor Brumfield continued to provide massive production for the IC offense. Ozsvath finished with four points on one goal and three assists, while Brumfield posted two goals and a pair of helpers to also finish with four points.
 
Four other players collected multi-goal games in the midfield. Juniors Josh Della Puca and Brendan King, as well as freshmen Dillon Fitzpatrick and Ryan Jacob each tallied a pair of goals in the contest, Fitzpatrick adding an assist to finish with a career-best three points. Rounding out the scoring for IC were senior Stephen Morrell and sophomore Dan Lee, who each posted one goal. Junior Owen Smith and sophomore Tyler Krampf each added a pair of assists in the contest.
 
Defensively, sophomore Aaron McCartney led the way with two caused turnovers and four ground-balls. Graduate-student Winston Wenham posted one caused turnover and two ground-balls, while freshman Vasilios Fokas added one caused turnover. IC finished with nine forced miscues in the game.
 
In goal, sophomore Robby Atwood ran his record to 6-0 with a strong performance before relinquishing the net to freshman TJ Brennan for the final 20-minutes and change. Atwood finished with eight saves and did not allow a goal. Brennan was solid in relief, posting four saves in his minutes of game action.
 
It did not take long for Ithaca's talented attack to make its presence felt in the contest. Entering the game ranked second in the Liberty League, averaging 15.8 goals per game, the Bombers racked up six in the opening period to take command of the contest.
 
Della Puca got the scoring started for IC, scoring just 23-seconds after the opening whistle. Senior Steven Landspurg corralled the opening draw for the Bombers and pushed possession into the attacking zone. Della Puca capitalized on the opportunity, firing home a shot past Oneonta reserve keeper Jake Boston to get Ithaca up and running. It was the first of two goals for Della Puca in the quarter.
 
The score line remained the same until the midway point of the quarter, when Ithaca pumped home five scores over the final 7:32 of the opening frame. Dillon Fitzpatrick opened up the scoring spurt when he made an excellent power from the left wing. Despite being fouled on the play, he had the strength to fight off the check and dump a shot past Boston from in-close, doing well to keep his feet out of the goalie circle.
 
IC rookie extended the lead to 3-0 just under three-minutes later with his first of two goals on the afternoon. Recently named Liberty League and ECAC North Rookie of the Week, he showcased the scoring touch that earned him the two honors. The freshman took a feed from Owen Smith and rifled a shot in from the left wing. The goal sparked a four-point effort for the rookie, who has amassed multi-point efforts in each of his first six collegiate contests.
 
The Bombers struck twice in a 23-second span just as the clock ticked under three-minutes in the opening frame. Della Puca started the scoring run when he scored on a sneaky shot from the right side of the zone. Peeling out from the goal line, the junior midfielder faked right and turned back inside to gain just enough separation from his marking defender to bury a bounce shot inside the left post. Moments later, Ozsvath pushed the lead to 5-0 when he snapped a feed from Brumfield into the Oneonta cage at 2:36 left in the first.
 
King put the capper on Ithaca's big opening quarter, when he scored his first of two straight goals with just seven-seconds left before the horn. Ozsvath earned the assist on the goal, which sent the Bombers into the first intermission leading 6-0.
 
Ithaca continued to build the momentum in the second session, outscoring the Red Dragons 4-0 in the frame to go into the half up 10-0.
 
King got Ithaca going in the second quarter with a goal at 11:35. Receiving a great pass from Brumfield, the junior middie streaked across the face of goal and ripped a shot into the cage. Brumfield turned from passer to scorer when he upped the advantage to 8-0 at 8:57. Working on a nice passing sequence, Ozsvath picked out Brumfield behind the Oneonta defense at the left post. He patiently held onto the ball, moving left-to-right across the slot, before snapping a shot top shelf.
 
Dillon Fitzpatrick added his second goal of the game with 4:20 remaining in the half. Smith created the play with a nice skip pass from the right wing to Fitzpatrick at the far left post. He dumped a shot that went five-hole. Senior Stephen Morrell capped the first half scoring with 40-seconds remaining, finishing off a pass from Ozsvath with a five-hole shot from the left wing. The score sat at 10-0 heading into the half, while the Bombers had out-shot SUNY Oneonta 25-10 through 30-minutes.
 
The opening moments of the third quarter proved to be fairly uneventful, although Atwood continued to be strong in the Ithaca cage. The sophomore net-minder notched two additional saves during the frame, before coming out of the game with a little more than five-minutes remaining in the third quarter.
 
With most of Ithaca's starting unit out of the game, the Red Dragons finally were able to find some cracks in the Bombers rock-solid defense. That did not make matters easier for reserve goalie TJ Brennan, who came in for the final 20-minutes in change of the contest. SUNY Oneonta was able to snap IC's shutout bid with five goals, cutting Ithaca's lead to 10-5 with 4:40 left on the clock.
 
A big save by Brennan with 3:35 to play, the rookies fifth of the contest, finally gave the Bombers the second-half jolt they were looking for. Sophomore attacker Dan Lee got Ithaca on the board in the second half with his first goal of the 2018 campaign with 1:20 to play. Freshman attacker Ryan Jacob added his first two collegiate goals with under a minute left to put the finishing touches on the 13-5 victory.
 
Ithaca returns to action this weekend when it travels to RPI for a pivotal Liberty League road test on Saturday, March 24. Opening faceoff is scheduled for 1:00 p.m.