Utica, N.Y. – The SUNY Poly men's lacrosse team turned in a dominant performance at home on Wednesday afternoon, rolling to a convincing 17–3 victory over Elmira. The Wildcats controlled the action from the opening whistle, ultimately pushing their season record above .500 at 4-3.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Elmira opened the game with early possession and a handful of chances, but SUNY Poly's defense held firm and Tyler Baisley came up with several key stops to keep the Soaring Eagles off the board. Once the Wildcats settled in, the offense quickly took over.
SUNY Poly struck first at the 11:11 mark of the opening quarter when Luke Taylor finished off a feed from Kai Hew to open the scoring. Just 30 seconds later, Cooper Fitzgerald added another off an assist from Casey Ryan to make it 2–0, and the Wildcats continued to pour it on from there.
Fitzgerald netted his second of the quarter at 9:40 off another setup from Hew, and after an Elmira penalty, completed his first-quarter hat trick with a man-up goal at 8:20, assisted by Mitchell Taylor. Liam Podszebka added to the surge less than a minute later, and Kai Hew buried a goal of his own at 3:45 after a caused turnover created another scoring chance. SUNY Poly capped the explosive quarter with two more tallies in the final 1:30, as Fitzgerald scored again and Luke Taylor added a man-up marker, giving the Wildcats a commanding 8–0 lead after one.
The second quarter featured more of the same as SUNY Poly continued to dominate possession and force Elmira into mistakes. Baisley remained sharp in goal, stopping multiple extra-man chances to preserve the shutout, while the Wildcats capitalized on their own man-up opportunities at the other end.
Ryan Carroll opened the second-quarter scoring with a man-up goal at 8:19, finishing a pass from Hew after back-to-back Elmira penalties. Later in the half, Casey Ryan found the back of the net with another extra-man tally at 1:50, again assisted by Hew, as SUNY Poly carried a 10–0 advantage into halftime.
The Wildcats stayed aggressive coming out of the break and continued to apply pressure in the third. Kai Hew scored early at 13:10 off a feed from Casey Ryan, and Mitchell Taylor added a man-up goal midway through the quarter to stretch the lead to 12–0. Hew struck again at 5:33 with another extra-man finish, this time from Luke Taylor, pushing the margin to 13–0.
Elmira finally broke through with a man-up goal from Austin Jerzak at 4:41, and the Soaring Eagles added one more in the closing seconds of the quarter, but SUNY Poly still held firm control with a 13–2 lead heading into the fourth.
In the final period, the Wildcats continued to dictate the pace. Ian Short got on the board at 11:46 to restore momentum, and Ryan Carroll answered Elmira's quick response with another man-up goal at 9:58, once again assisted by Hew. Mitchell Taylor followed with a power-play finish at 7:52, and Jeremy Catajan closed the scoring with his first goal of the afternoon at 1:34 off an assist from Mitchell Taylor helping the Wildcats secure a 17-3 victory.
