CANTON, N.Y. – The 19^th-ranked Ithaca College men's lacrosse team jumped right back into Liberty League action on Wednesday afternoon when it hit the road for another challenging test at No. 17 St. Lawrence. Looking to shake off the sting from a humbling 16-7 defeat at RPI over the weekend, the Bombers were able to secure a huge victory over the nationally-ranked Saints, besting the North Country foe in an 8-5 defensive battle. The win improves Ithaca's record to 7-1 on the season, while IC is now 2-1 in Liberty League play and owns the tiebreaker on a St. Lawrence squad, moving the Bombers into third-place in the League standings.
 
The Ithaca coaching staff prioritized defensive responsibility during this week's practice. Just four days after posting its worst defensive outing of the year, the Bombers turned in one of its most impressive performances on the back end in 2018, limiting St. Lawrence's potent attack to just five goals on its home field. Keying the effort was an IC defense corps that racked up 10 caused turnovers and excellent goaltending from sophomore keeper Robby Atwood.
 
Atwood entered the day in search of a redemptive performance after conceding 16 goals in the loss to the Engineers, which was his first collegiate loss in nine career starts. The sophomore turned in one of his finest performances, racking up 14 saves that equaled his career high set against Skidmore in another Liberty League road battle earlier this season. The performance was the sixth time this season he has conceded five goals or less.
 
Defensively, Ithaca received yeoman work from its starting corps of senior Keith Morrissey, graduate-student Winston Wenham, junior Sean Seaberg, and freshman Jake Hall-Goldman. Morrissey and Seaberg each registered three caused turnovers in the contest, the former adding three ground-balls and the latter corralling one grounder. Wenham and Hall-Goldman each posted two caused turnovers and two ground-balls.
 
Offensively, it was not Ithaca's top performance in terms of volume, as St. Lawrence held a possession edge throughout the day. What it lacked in volume, the attack made up for in efficiency. The Bombers scored on eight of their 17 shots on goal in the tilt, getting just enough scoring to edge the Saints.
 
Leading the way was sophomore transfer Ryan Ozsvath, who tallied a hat trick in a three-point afternoon. It was the sophomore's fifth hat-trick effort of the campaign, while it snapped a string of three games in which he was unable to reach the mark. The three-goal effort also brought his season total over 20, the first Bomber to pass the threshold in 2018.
 
Two other IC players recorded three-point efforts on the day. Most encouraging was the return to the lineup of junior attacker Will Witter who had been out since scoring a lone goal in the season-opening win over Lycoming. Witter scored once and added two assists in his return from the six-game absence, while he also posted two ground-balls. Junior Conner Crosson also netted three points on the day, scoring twice and adding an assist.
 
Also registering points for Ithaca on the day were seniors Jake Cotton and Stephen Morrell, as well as junior Brendan King. Morrell posted a two-point day with a goal and an assist, while Cotton delivered a big insurance goal with 4:03 remaining that foiled St. Lawrence's momentum after cutting the deficit to 7-5. King chipped in an assist on Ozsvath's first score of the afternoon.
 
Once again it was a strong start that put Ithaca on the path to victory. The Bombers put up three goals during the opening quarter, while it kept St. Lawrence off the scoreboard in the first to take a 3-0 lead to the first break. Most notable during the stretch was back-to-back tallies from Morrell and Crosson just 51-seconds apart just over five minutes into the game. Witter capped the scoring in the frame with his second goal of 2018 with 2:06 left.
 
St. Lawrence responded with back-to-back goals to begin the second quarter. However, Ozsvath and Crosson closed out the quarter with goals of their own roughly five minutes apart to ensure Ithaca would carry the momentum to the break in the low-scoring defensive battle. Atwood marked three saves in both the first and second quarters, finishing with six through 30-minutes.
 
The Bombers continued to build their narrow edge during the third quarter. Ozsvath provided all the scoring during the frame, sandwiching a St. Lawrence man-up score by Cal Hynson with two goals of his own to send Ithaca to the final frame up 7-3. Ozsvath's first score of the third quarter came off a slick feed from Witter, while his second was unassisted off an excellent run to the cage.
 
St. Lawrence clawed back into the game during the early stages of the fourth quarter. Brian Cunningham began the comeback effort with a goal at 12:37, while Brett Williams followed with a score 3:15 later to close the margin to just two goals. However, Ithaca's defense and goaltending stood tall down the stretch. Hall-Goldman and Morrissey each caused turnovers, while Atwood came up with four saves down the stretch following Williams' score to keep the Saints at bay.
 
Cotton iced the game for Ithaca with his goal from Crosson at 4:02. The tally snapped a two-game point drought from one of the Bombers all-time leading scorers.
 
Ithaca returns to action this weekend with another Liberty League matchup, as the Bombers welcome Vassar to Higgins Stadium on Saturday, March 31. Start time is scheduled for 3:00 p.m. following the conclusion of the women's lacrosse contest against Union, which is tabbed for a noon start.