Pioneers Fly By Hawks

The Alfred State lacrosse team picked up a key AMCC victory as they defeated Hilbert 9-6 in a contest played at St. Francis High School. The Pioneers have won two straight and 3-4 overall and 2-0 in AMCC play.

The Pioneers played an outstanding all around 1st half. The team jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the 1st quarter with goals by Branden Dickson (Bath) and Dominic Arresta (Southhampton). Arresta was credited with the assist on Dickson's goal. The game remained 2-0 until the closing seconds of the 2nd quarter when Joe Johnson (Churchville) scored a pair of goals. His first came a man down with 23 seconds left in the half after getting a pass from AJ Soto (Churchville) while his second came with just four seconds left after getting a pass from Dickson. Matt Cobb (Churchville) made 7 saves in the 1st half in net.

Teddy Alvarado (Hilton) scored 4:30 into the 3rd quarter to make it 5-0. Johnson completed his hat trick with a goal 1:29 later and Soto found the back of the net on a man-up opportunity with 4:29 left in the quarter. Hilbert got on the board for the first time with 3:17 left when Travis Hicks scored. They made it 7-2 heading to the final quarter with a goal in the closing seconds by Edward Mathias.

Marc O'Neill cut the lead to 7-3 just 1:13 into the 4th quarter but Landon Drumm (Tully) stopped the three-goal run with his first of the season from Cole Reuben (Basom/Akron). Mathias scored with 8:05 remaining, O'Neill followed with a goal with 5:40 remaining, and James Duffy cut the lead to 8-6 with just 2:15 remaining. With 57 seconds left in the contest, Eric Passeck (Thomaston, CT) iced the game with his first goal of the season.

The Pioneers held a 42 to 39 shot advantage in the contest (Alfred State outshot Hilbert 21 to 11 in the 1st half while the Hawks held a 28 to 21 advantage in the 2nd). Cobb finished the day with 21 saves including 14 in the 2nd half.

Johnson led the way with the hat trick while Arresta, Dickson, and Soto all finished with a goal and an assist. Seven different Pioneers scored in the contest. 

Mathias scored twice and had an assist while O'Neill had a pair of goals. Elijah Ryan made 17 saves for the Hawks (2-4).

The Pioneers will begin a three-game homestand on Wednesday when they host Utica. Opening face-off is slated for 4 p.m. at Pioneer Stadium.

Game Notes

The Pioneers had a 84 minute shutout streak snapped when the Hawks scored their first goal of the game in the 3rd quarter. 

The game was a rematch of the AMCC Showcase Final from 2017.

Johnson has scored a goal in each of the Pioneer seven goals including back-to-back hat tricks.