The Cortland men’s lacrosse team pulled off an incredible comeback against the Nazareth Golden Flyers in a cold, rainy game played at Grady Field, winning 12-10. A four goal surge in the third and fourth quarters propelled the Red Dragons to victory on Wednesday afternoon, demonstrating their resilience and determination.
The Golden Flyers started the game with a 6-2 advantage in the first quarter, which they were able to create with four straight goals to end the quarter. In the second quarter, Cortland rallied, and by halftime, Caden Yancey had scored two goals to cut the deficit to 7-5.
“That’s definitely not how you want to start off a game against a good team like Nazareth,” said Yancey. “It was great to see the guys really come together and fight for eachother to be able to make that comeback.”
With three goals in the third quarter, the Red Dragons came out scoring and took their first lead of the game. However, Nazareth answered with two goals of their own to take a 9-8 lead. Before the fourth quarter, the score was knotted at 9-9 thanks to a late goal by Klay Stuver.
“It let the fellas know that if we just play our game that we can be a very good team,” said Stuver. “We’re going to learn from our mistakes offensively and defensively and become a better team because of them.”
In the fourth quarter, the game belonged to Cortland, as Stuver, Sean Kavanagh, and Nick Stoeker, scored goals to take a 12-9 lead. Nazareth scored a goal late in the game to go within two goals, but Cortland’s defense held strong to win.
Stuver led the way for Cortland with three goals, all coming in the second half. Same Rothman also scored two goals and provided an assist, in addition to Yancey’s two goals and two assists. Travis Wagner, the starting goalie, led the defense with 19 saves, which was crucial to the victory, holding down the defensive end of the field.
“Besides starting slow in the first quarter, where we let in some easy goals, I thought our defense came together really well,” said Wagner. “We know that we can’t let that happen going forward, but it gives me a lot of confidence in myself and the guys in front of me to know what we’re all capable of.”
Quinn Conroy led Nazareth offense with two goals and three assists, followed by Andy Hamel, and Kyle Rosenberger with two each. Nazareth tried, but they could not stop Cortland’s late charge.
Cortland’s season record now stands at 6-3, while Nazareth dropped to 8-4. The Red Dragons gave the spectators a spectacular display of lacrosse as they demonstrated their resiliency and ability to perform under pressure.
Cortland will travel to Brockport N.Y, to play against conference rivals SUNY Brockport in a SUNYAC matchup, and Nazareth hopes to recover against St. John Fisher. In order to secure a berth into the NCAA tournament, the Red Dragons will need to maintain the momentum they gained from this victory as they go on with the season and into conference playoffs.