The Oswego State men's lacrosse team fell just short in their comeback bid at Brockport, dropping a 9-8 contest on Saturday afternoon.
Oswego's loss eliminates it from playoff contention as the Lakers wrap the season with a 6-9 overall mark and a 2-4 conference record. The Golden Eagles secured the third seed in next week's SUNYAC Championship as they are 8-5 overall and 4-2 in the league.
In a true game of runs, the final one by the Lakers came within a goal of forcing extra time. Trailing 9-5 after a Golden Eagle man-up goal at 12:57, the Lakers scored the tilt's next three. Bobby Emerson's fourth and fifth goals of the game bookended the three-goal spurt. In between Emerson's tallies was Tyler Nason's 12th of the year in unassisted fashion. Oswego won the faceoff following Emerson's final goal and put a shot on net that would have evened the game, but a Brockport save and clear put the game away.
Brockport opened the game on a three-goal run that lasted into the second quarter, but Oswego notched the next two to pull to within a score. After two more Golden Eagle goals, the Lakers strung three in a row to knot the game at 5-5 with 12:10 left in the third quarter. A four-goal run for Brockport proved to be the difference, spanning from 11:15 in the third to 12:57 in the final quarter.
Emerson stayed hot after a six-goal performance against No. 5 Cortland on Wednesday, with a game-high five goals to go along with an assist for six points. Senior Zach Anderson, junior Tyler Nason and sophomore Jarrod Wilkom split the other three Laker goals evenly. Anderson added two assists to his line, tying Tim Schof and a Golden Eagle player for a game-high. Nason and Pat Kenneally each distributed an assists as well.
Ben Roberts (5), Adam Burlew (3), Teddy Phillips (2) and Mark Niechcial (2) combined for 12 of the Lakers' 19 ground balls while seven other teammates had one apiece. Phillips led the way with three caused turnovers while Chase Izyk forced the team's fourth Brockport turnover. Izyk went 5-for-10 in the faceoff circle while Kevin O'Connor won seven of his 10 chances.
Wyatt Russo stood tall in net all day, making 15 saves to bring his career total to 553. The senior concludes his career with a .543 save percentage and goals-against average of 9.27.
