The Cortland Men’s Lacrosse team has their first official game away on Wednesday, February 28th against St. John Fisher.
The urge to win is fueling Cortland Men’s Lacrosse after falling short in a battle 9-16 against Hamilton college this past Friday. The team has been realizing their weaknesses and attempting to learn from them for wins in the future.
Zach Perlett is a junior offensive midfielder for Cortland and has been expressing the desire to win and how hard his team has been working to achieve a victory.
Watching the Ithaca vs St. John Fisher game has helped gain knowledge and excitement knowing Cortland had beaten Ithaca 13-7 last year and that it is possible to have a good game against Fisher. “We started watching film for Fisher Saturday,” Perlett said. “We went over their team scout in order to be prepared for this upcoming game Wednesday.”
“We had good teamwork, but we started off the first quarter with 7 penalties,” Perlett said. “Which put us really behind and we couldn’t seem to overcome that.”
Starting with this many penalties had made it harder to recover from the beginning. Having 13 total penalties in the scrimmage, Perlett said they would try to eliminate the number of penalties in the next game to avoid this in the future.
Owen Folkwein, a junior goalie, said his position gives him a different perspective compared to his other teammates. He agrees with Perlett that they need to work on the number of penalties during these games, but also explains how their defense also needs work. He can see the entire field and evaluate how these athletes play and what needs to be done differently.
“We are letting up too many shots as our defense is not as good as it could be,” Folkwein said. “In order for a successful game we must tighten our defensive to eliminate the number of hands-free shots.”
Folkwein has mentioned how the team’s defense has been a weakness the past two scrimmages and has been a focus point that they want to work on in the future. If they continue to work on these struggles, both Perlett and Folkwein believe that there can be success in upcoming games.
Teammates believe Lelan Rogers being a new addition to Cortland Lacrosse has added a new dynamic for the team and has introduced a new environment. Being a former SUNYAC champion coach for Cortland in 2005, he is familiar with the winning culture and understands what it takes to bring this 2024 team a successful playoff run.
“I really like Coach Rogers he always brings energy to practice and holds us to high expectations every day. I also like how he is very strict during practice and holds us to a standard but on game days he wants us to enjoy our grind and have fun,” Perlett said. “He has changed the offense and defense a lot but being an offensive midfielder, he has changed the offense from specific plays to a free flow offense which allows us to play more freely.”
They are hoping to show what they have learned in this upcoming game.