ALFRED, NY – The Alfred University men's lacrosse team fought back after a shaky first quarter to top The College at Brockport, 11-10 during overtime in non-conference action Wednesday evening at Yunevich Stadium.
 
Sophomore attack Joe Fornataro (Rochester, NY/Greece Athena) scored the game-winning goal on the evening and tied with Brockport's Jake Giudice for the most goals of the game with four each. They also added an assist for a total of five points. Three of Fornataro's goals were for the lead throughout the game and two of them were on man-up opportunities. Junior attack Jake Lynch (Whitney Point, NY/Whitney Point) led both teams in total points with six from his three goals and game-high three assists.
 
Defensively, the Saxons (2-0, 0-0 Empire 8) were led by freshman Shane Weber (Hull, MA/Hull) who had a game-leading five caused turnovers. He also managed to recover one ground ball and recorded his first collegiate assist on the Saxons' first goal in the fourth quarter on a long pass from end to end to junior David LaSpina (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas), upping the Saxons to a 9-8 lead. LaSpina held the top spot in ground balls for Alfred University with six and was followed by freshman Ben Cafolla (Seneca Falls, NY/Mynderse Academy) and sophomore Frank Gavigan (Yorktown, NY/Yorktown) who both had five ground balls. Cafolla and Gavigan had four and three caused turnovers, respectively as well.
 
The Saxons fell to an early 3-1 deficit during the first quarter and the beginning moments of the second until Lynch scored his lone man-up goal of the evening off an assist from Fornataro at 13:30, bringing the Saxons within one. A pair of Liam Cannon goals would give Brockport their final two-goal lead of the game with just over seven minutes remaining in the second quarter.
 
Alfred University responded with a 6-1 scoring spree that finished off the second quarter and the majority of the third. The run gave the Saxons their only two-goal lead of the game, 8-6 with 5:30 left in the third.
 
After Fornataro's goal with 10:35 left in the fourth quarter off an assist from Matt Zandri (Baldwinsville, NY/Baldwinsville), the Saxons had a 10-9 lead. There wasn't another score until 1:48 when Brockport's Giudice scored an unassisted, game-tying goal. After spurts of offensive pressure from both sides, Brockport managed to gain possession for what would be the final push of regulation.
 
Out of the timeout, Brockport's Brendan Fitzgerald made one final push but was met by rookie Weber who stripped the ball as time ran out, forcing the extra period.
 
Lynch made a right-to-left pass from just inside the attack zone to Fornataro who squeaked in the top-shelf netter for the win with 32 seconds remaining on the clock.
 
Junior Drew Gardner (Whitney Point, NY/Whitney Point) played all 63:28 of the clock in goal for the purple and gold as he picked up his second win of the season. In total, he faced 43 shots and made 12 saves. Brockport's Conor Nowak made 11 saves off of facing 42 Saxon shots.
 
Brockport held the advantage in faceoffs, winning 14-of-23 while also holding the edge on ground balls with 41 to Alfred's 36. In terms of penalties, the visitors spent more time on man-down situations than Alfred. The Golden Eagles committed six penalties for a total of four minutes while the Saxons had three flags for 2:30, with two 1-minute slashes happening at the same time, giving Brockport the 2-person advantage in which the Saxons defense shut down the attack, allowing no goals off of Brockport's two shots during that minute.
 
The Saxons will next travel to take on SUNY Geneseo on Saturday, March 4 at 1:00 pm.