CANTON, NY – Junior Jake Lynch (Whitney Point, NY/Whitney Points) shined in the Alfred University men's lacrosse team's season opener Saturday afternoon, tying a 22-year-old school record with nine goals as the Saxons defeated host SUNY Canton, 26-2.
 
Sophomore Joe Fornataro (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena) scored five goals while seven other AU players got into the scoring column. Lynch's nine goals tied the school record first set by Jay Morris against Brockport in 1980 and matched by Peter Colburn against California-San Diego in 1995. Lynch also added a pair of assists for the Saxons.
 
AU got its game going early in the first when Lynch scored 4:45 into the game and scored his second goal a minute later. In the second quarter, the Saxons were firing on all cylinders, scoring 12 goals in the frame. Alfred went on an 11-0 run before Josh Yelvington netted Canton's lone goal in the first half. Lynch would close out the first half scoring with a minute remaining, giving the Saxons a 13-1 lead.
 
Senior Derek Bishopp (Livonia, NY/Livonia) got the scoring going in the second half scoring his third goal only 36 seconds into the quarter to make the score 15-1. Six Saxons combined for 11 goals in the remainder of the game with the last goal being scored by sophomore Peyton VanBibber (Canton, NY/H.C. Williams) with 7:38 remaining in the game.
 
Junior Brett McMichaels (Penn Yan, NY/Penn Yan) orchestrated the offense, finishing with five assists while Lynch, Fornataro and senior Nick Skibitsky (East Amherst, NY, Williamsville East) each had two assists.
 
Senior Jimmy Pratti (Slatehill, NY/Minisink Valley) led Alfred with 15 groundballs and was perfect on faceoffs, going 20-for-20 as the Saxons finished with 28-of-33. Senior Chris Deisenroth (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas) was second on the team with six groundballs.
 
Junior Drew Gardner (Whitney Point, NY/Whitney Point) earned the win with 50 minutes in goal making six saves and allowing one goal. Fellow junior Chris Doktor (Irondequoit, NY/Eastridge) spent four minutes in net and sophomore Brandon Smith (Queens, NY/The Governor's Academy) closed out the game allowing one goal.
 
Freshman defenders Shane Weber (Hull, MA/Hull) and Ben Cafolla (Seneca Falls, NY/Mynderse Academy) paced Alfred with four caused turnovers apiece. 

The Saxons capitalized on four of their six man-up opportunities while the Roos were unable to score on their three chances.
 
The Saxons are in action next Wednesday, March 1, for their home opener against SUNY Brockport at 4 p.m.