ALFRED, NY – The Alfred University men's lacrosse team picked up it's fourth win in a row and second home win in a row with a 17-9 topping of Oswego State on Wednesday evening at Yunevich Stadium.
 
Two of the most familiar scoring faces for the Saxons (6-1, 0-0 Empire 8) were seen in today's win between sophomore Jake Lynch (Whitney Point, NY/Whitney Point) and freshman Joe Fornataro (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena). Both of them had double hat-tricks with six goals. Lynch shot 13 times and added three ground balls while Fornataro posted 14 shots, three ground balls and one caused turnover.
 
Junior John Winchell (Vestal, NY/Vestal) assisted on four goals as he led the game in assists while adding a caused turnover and two ground balls of his own.
 
Junior Chris Diesenroth (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas) forced a Saxon-high three caused turnovers and recovered four ground balls. Senior Max Wilson (Menlo Park, CA/Menlo-Atherton) and junior Nolan Jessop (Churchville, NY/Churchville-Chili) followed with two caused turnovers each.
 
Sophomore goalie Drew Gardner (Whitney Point, NY/Whitney Point) made nine saves in his 57 minutes of play while allowing seven as he picked up the win to put his win-loss to a mark of 6-1. He also totaled three ground balls.
 
With the first quarter being a back-and-forth struggle, both teams seemed to be at a stand still with a Laker 2-1 lead over the Saxons until the 6:28 mark when Fornataro scored his second goal of the game to tie it up 2-2. Lynch followed with his first of the game with help from junior Nick Skibitsky (Williamsville, NY/Williamsville East) at 4:39 and junior Derek Bishopp (Livonia, NY/Livonia) scored his first goal off a man-up situation at 1:09 to give Alfred University a 4-3 lead at the end of one quarter.
 
The Saxons got some breathing room in their lead just before halftime with goals from senior Tanner Morse (Corning, NY/Corning-Painted Post East) at 3:44 and Lynch assisted by Winchell at 0:12 to get up to a 7-4 lead.
 
Oswego State opened the second half with back-to-back goals within the first seven minutes of the quarter. Alfred University responded with a 9-1 run that lasted all of the third quarter and just over 12 minutes of the fourth quarter for a 16-7 lead. The Lakers added two more goals in the final 2:14 of the game, including a last second goal that brought the final tally to 17-9 in favor of the home team.
 
Other to scorers for the Saxons were Morse with two and two assists, Bishopp's one goal, freshman Kyle Landrigan's (Canandaigua, NY/Canandaigua) final goal of the game for Alfred University and Skibitsky's one goal, two assists performance.
 
Winchell was joined in credited assists by not only Morse and Skibitsky, but also by sophomore Donny Sturdevant (Whitney Point, NY/Whitney Point) and sophomore Brett McMichael (Penn Yan, NY/Penn Yan) who both had one.
 
Junior Jimmy Pratti (Slatehill, NY/Minisink Valley) led AU with six ground balls as he went just under .500 in faceoffs won, going 13-for-27.
 
The Saxons will next open Empire 8 play as they travel out of the Empire State to Hoboken, NJ to take on Stevens Institute of Technology on Saturday, March 26 at 1:00 pm.