box score
HAMBURG, NY – The men’s lacrosse team got back to their winning ways with a 10-8 NEAC victory over Cobleskill March 28. The Hawks had balanced scoring with Sean Purtill and Greg Zitnik each netting three goals apiece helping to improve the Hawks to 2-1 in league standings. Cobleskill’s Jeff Fichtner also scored three goals for his Tigers (0-5) as they still search for their first win of the season.
Fichtner put points on the score board twice in the first period motivating the Hawks to regroup at the quarter-break. After a slow-scoring first session, each team scored twice within the first 5 minutes of the second quarter. Hilbert’s Eric Russell broke the seal on the Cobleskill net with Pete Gonzalez hitting twenty-three seconds later. Hilbert scored six second-period goals to Cobleskill’s four which sent both teams to their patch of grass at intermission knotted at 6-6.
The second half of the game appeared to be all Hilbert. Purtill and Zitnik scored one more time each, and Ryan Wagner hit for two himself after returning to action for his first game this season. The Hawks did surrender two second half goals, but Wagner’s back-to-back hits less than 40 seconds apart sealed the deal for Hilbert.
The Hawks held the advantage over the Tigers in every team statistical category. Hilbert almost doubled up on shots (45-25) and ground balls (34-16) and they held a commanding lead in face-offs winning 15 of the 20 performed. William Wagner claimed his first NEAC win going the full sixty minutes in goal. Doug Takac earned five ground balls with Nick Kieffer and Sean Manning each securing four.
Hilbert (2-3, 2-1) has ten days off before they travel to La Roche College April 7 for a non-conference match.