Cortland Standard .net

The SUNY Cortland men’s lacrosse team was more than ready to get post-season play underway.
With senior midfielder Matt Rakoczy and junior attackman Zach Hopps reaching career scoring milestones, the Red Dragons stormed out to a commanding early lead and had little trouble cruising into the conference finals with a 21-5 romp past visiting Oneonta on a sunny Wednesday afternoon.
While Rakoczy and Hopps were becoming the 23rd and 24th players at Cortland to surpass 100 career goals, the top-seeded hosts grabbed an 8-0 first quarter lead to drain any drama out of this SUNY Athletic Conference semifinal playoff contest.
Now the Red Dragons (13-4) — who are ranked 11th nationally in Division III and have now won 11 consecutive games — will host second-seed Plattsburgh (13-5) in the 3:30 p.m. title game Saturday afternoon back at the Stadium Complex.
Plattsburgh was a 15-7 home field winner over third-seed Potsdam in the other semifinal played yesterday.
Cortland had 11 different players score goals in humbling fourth-seed Oneonta (7-8), with Hopps finishing with four goals while Rakoczy had a three-goal hat trick.
Senior attackman Benjamin Dunlavey also netted three goals while freshman attackman Devin Phelps collected a career-high five assists.
Junior McLaren Brady, freshman Nicky Bonitatibus and fellow rookie Eddie Eddington each scored twice in the win. Senior Billy Davis added one goal and one assist, while freshman Justin Siracusa notched the first goal of his career.
Sophomore Nathan Doody out of Tully topped Oneonta with four goals.
In less than five minutes Cortland was already in front 3-0, with Rakoczy notching his 100th career goal on the third score. The advantage grew to 8-0 at the 6:12 mark of the opening quarter.
Hopps opened the second quarter with his 100th career goal and Bonitatibus followed less than two minutes later with his first of the game, and the host Red Dragons led, 10-0. Doody ended Oneonta’s 20:03 scoring drought with his first goal before Cortland closed out the half with three scores in a row for a 13-1 lead.
Four different players netted a goal for Cortland in the third quarter, while Oneonta’s Alec Solomito assisted on a pair of goals by Doody to make it a 17-3 game heading to the final quarter.
Doody tallied his fourth goal of the game before Cortland’s Brady followed with back-to-back goals, and Cortland led 19-4 with 6:09 remaining Oneonta’s Anthony Laureano scored unassisted at 4:47, sophomore James Nielsen picked up his first goal of the season for Cortland at 3:57, and Siracusa completed the scoring with his first career goal just 12 seconds later after winning a faceoff.
Cortland also had freshman goalie Hein Hofvind from Norway see his first action of the season, making two saves over the final 11:08.
The victorious Red Dragons finished with a 51-27 shot advantage and won 24-of-29 faceoffs, junior Pat Baldwin successful in 12-of-15 attempts at the X while also securing nine ground balls. Junior Gino Prestigiacomo won 9-of-11 and also recorded nine ground balls.
Plattsburgh 15, Potsdam 7: Brendan Damm had three goals and three assists as Plattsburgh reached the finals for only the second time in program history. Ryan Hubbard and Jack Felter also had three-goal outings for the Cardinals.
Plattsburgh will now look to avenge a 15-9 regular season loss to Cortland, that game played in Plattsburgh back on April 11.
—Cortland senior Scott Tota was named the SUNYAC Goalie of the Week after leading the team to a pair of conference wins last week. In a 14-4 win over Oswego, he made six saves and allowed four goals in 53 minutes. He followed that up by stopping 10 shots and allowing four goals in a 10-4 triumph over Brockport.
Heading into the Oneonta contest, Tota had a 4.25 goals against average and a .667 save percentage — and finished with two saves while allowing just one goal playing the opening half against Oneonta.