Cortland Standard .net

By ALAN BUTLER
Sports Editor
After scoring the game’s opening four goals, the SUNY Cortland men’s lacrosse squad was never in serious jeopardy of stumbling while making their home field debut.
With attackmen James Stavrakis and Zach Hopps both scoring three times, the nationally eighth-ranked Red Dragons went on to beat visiting Albright College by the same four-goal margin created by that quick first quarter getaway, the final tally favoring the hosts 10-6 on Wednesday afternoon.
It was a nice way for the Red Dragons (1-1) to bounce back from a 14-13 loss at Union this past weekend.
The tamed Lions (1-1) left this snow-covered SUNY Cortland Stadium Complex feeling pretty good, though it was not the victorious homecoming four locals Albright players — not to mention head coach Jake Plunket — would have preferred after busing up from Reading, Pennsylvania.
“We didn’t play our best game today,” said Philip Potter, Albright’s senior attackman and former Cortland High standout who picked up a pair of assists on the day. That included setting up his side’s third man-up goal in the final minute scored by younger brother and current sophomore midfielder Andrew Potter.
“We had a few issues on clears and we didn’t finish our shots the way we should have. It was rough,” added the older Potter brother.
Still for the Potters, starting senior defenseman Cody Sandy out of Homer Central and sophomore defensive middie Jordan Zehr from Dryden High, it was special playing in front of some familiar faces.
“It was real nice to have our parents come out and not have to drive four hours to a game. They literally live two streets down that way, so it was nice,” said Philip Potter, though spectators could only congregate at one small section of bleachers at the north end of the field because of the mounds of snow piled up on all of the other Stadium Complex seats.
Head coach and Cortland native Plunket, the former Red Dragons’ assistant coach who was also a Homer Central and Syracuse University midfielder, was also happy to be back in town despite the wintry conditions.
“It’s great to have the local guys come back. We just wanted to get the game in,” said Plunket, as these two teams were hoping to meet the weekend of Feb. 21-22 in Pennsylvania only to have snow disrupt those plans. “It’s just a great game to have on your schedule. Cortland’s a top 10 team in the nation and to play a 10-6 game with them, it’s good.”
“JAKE’S DONE A real nice job at Albright and I’m proud of him and what he’s done with his team,” said Cortland head coach Steve Beville, Plunket having started up the program four years ago. The Lions finished 13-6 last year and hope to battle perennial power Stevenson for a Commonwealth Conference regular season title this spring.
“They finally have seniors,” noted Beville, who has now played Albright for three consecutive seasons. “We try not to overlook anybody because we know they play real hard. They get after it and Jake and his staff have them well prepared. And they have a couple of local kids who have been doing a wonderful job for them, so we’re glad to get a good effort against them.”
Last year’s team scoring leader Philip Potter was coming off a four-goal performance in a season-opening win over Marymount, but was held down by Red Dragons defenseman Anthony Vaccaro before picking up a pair of fourth quarter assists.
Sandy was assigned to top Cortland attackman Hopps, and did a nice job despite the junior’s hat trick. Hopps scored the game’s first goal 1:27 into the game after some sharp passing made Albright pay for a double-team attempt. Of the other two Hopps goals, one came with Cortland a man-up and another when the Red Dragons turned a clean faceoff win by Pat Baldwin into a point-blank fourth quarter goal — coming off of the second assist of the day delivered by sophomore Stavrakis.
That third Hopps goal put Cortland ahead 9-3 with 13:18 left to play, though Albright out-scored the Red Dragons 3-1 the rest of the way and had a last-second goal waved off for stepping in the crease.
Both sides were just happy to get on the field since weather has interrupted pre-season preparations, which explains while Cortland had 25 turnovers and Albright 21 turnovers.
“UNFORTUNATELY, IT’S BEEN one of those winters. We just haven’t gotten much work done. Even building up to this game, we just weren’t able to get any quality practices in,” said Cortland’s Beville.
“Last night it’s snowing three inches while we’re standing out here for an hour,” he added, as shovelers were unable to keep up. “It’s been a frustrating winter up to this point, and that’s why it was great to get the game in. Our crew did a good job of clearing the field off for us. We’re fortunate we have a great maintenance crew and support staff at Cortland to help us get the field ready and it was great to play.”
Cortland came out ready to play, starting with that opening Hopps finish. Midfielder Mike Cantelli broke free to beat Albright goalie Nicholas Pisko one-on-one and Stavrakis scored twice from the same left-side locale within a 44-second span and the Red Dragons had a 4-0 working margin.
“I wasn’t super happy with the way we started. We spotted them a couple of goals and I figured that was going to happen from the long bus ride,” said Plunket from the Albright perspective. “Once we settled down and took a couple of deep breaths, I think the guys settled in and we started to execute on offense. We got some great looks, some great shots.”
Albright hung in there, as Bryan Smith scored twice and T.J. Holston picked up a pair of assists on the day.
The Cortland lead was still 6-2 at halftime while getting goals from Hopps and senior Luke McNaney, and the hosts led 7-3 heading in the final stanza as Stavrakis collected his third goal off a Dillon Giorgis assist.
Goals scored eight seconds apart by middie Matt Rakoczy and Hopps built a six-goal lead early in the fourth, McNaney later picking up his second goal of the game in that final stanza where each side scored three times.
BEVILLE WAS ENCOURAGED having his close defense of Vaccaro, David Foster and Ryan Scarano make strides from the loss to Union, while senior goalie Scott Tota made 10 saves to negate Albright’s 36-35 shot advantage. “We had some serious film work for our defense,” said Beville.
“We’re physical and athletic, but very inexperienced and Union really took advantage of that last weekend,” he added. “We did some good film work, and that really helped us because we weren’t able to practice much. I think we went over a few things and I’m glad to come out with a win, a good quality win. And we got some extra people in towards the end, and that was nice, too.”Cortland will next face No. 2 ranked RIT — coached by Homer Central grad Jake Coon — this coming Wednesday, a 7 p.m start inside of Syracuse University’s Carrier Dome.