ITHACA, N.Y. – In their first Liberty League action of the year, the Ithaca College men's lacrosse team started out conference play strong with a 13-6 win over the Vassar College Brewers on Saturday afternoon, avenging their 11-7 loss a year ago. The temperatures dropped and the snow began to fall at Higgins Stadium, but the Bombers got the job done and improved their overall record to 7-2 while the Brewers fell to 4-3 on the year with an 0-1 Liberty League record.
Last year's defeat to Vassar was the first in Ithaca's history to the Brewers and they clearly took that to heart with an explosive offensive outburst in the first quarter.
Cullen Adams notched a first-quarter hat trick and also started the game early with a goal just over 60 seconds into the contest, which got the home crowd fired up.
Kyle Savery added a tally to go along with Adams' hat trick and in the blink of an eye, it was 4-0.
Graham Brady,
Jack Pastore, and
Ethan Adrid added goals as well to complete a seven-goal entourage for the Bombers at the end of the first frame.
Vassar wasn't done yet as they went on a four-goal run of their own as Drew Mazzocco, John Malone, Gunnar Olsen and Shane O'Hara brought the Brewers to within three (7-4).
Ethan Adrid and
Jack Pastore added some insurance tallies to close the half with Ithaca regaining momentum heading into the halftime break up 9-4.
Jace Dockx scored his first goal of the season with a step-down missile in transition which got the Bomber faithful on their feet with Ithaca up 10-4 now.
Kyle Savery and
Brendan Occhino both got on the score sheet and Ithaca was 15 minutes away from victory up 12-5 heading into the final frame.
Despite some back-and-forth action, Ithaca held on to secure the 13-6 win.
Cullen Adams had a career-best five points consisting of three goals and two assists while
Andrew Minard was sharp as usual making five saves and allowing just six goals.
Ithaca's next game will be Tuesday, March 25 at 7:00 p.m. when they welcome Hamilton to town for a matchup under the lights.
