SCRANTON, Pa.-Ithaca College validated its lofty national ranking against The University of Scranton Saturday afternoon at Fitzpatrick Field. The 7th-ranked Bombers jumped out to a 6-1 lead by intermission en route to a 12-6 victory. Senior attacker Alec Siefert (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury) led the way with seven goals and two assists and junior attacker Nic Heckman (Sparta, N.J./Sparta) added two goals and two assists for Ithaca, now 2-0.

Scranton, which fell to 1-2, was led by freshman attacker Robby Napp (Spring Lake, N.J./Christian Brothers Academy) and senior attacker Nick Youngstrom (Vestal, N.Y./Vestal) tallied three goals apiece.

Ithaca took advantage of the penalty-prone Royals by converting 5 of 10 extra-man opportunities, including two in the first period en route to opening up a 3-1 lead. Siefert opened the scoring with an unassisted goal with 13:53 left, then added a goal off of a pass from Heckman on an extra-man situation with 7:51 left to extend the lead to 2-0.

After Youngstrom cut the lead to 2-1 with an unassisted goal 29 seconds later, the Bombers took advantage of another penalty against Scranton and scored a man-up goal-this time by senior midfielder Kevin Bush (St. George, Fla./Arapahoe-Colo.) with 3:22 left in the period-to take a 3-1 lead.

Siefert scored twice in the second period, including one on an extra-man opportunity, and Heckman added another as the Bombers continued to add to their lead. Heckman set up another goal by Siefert to open the third period before Youngstrom and Napp added back-to-back goals at the 11:58 and 6:36 marks, respectively, to cut Ithaca's lead to four, 7-3.

The Bombers then put the game out of reach with four unanswered goals-one each by freshmanattacker Devin Weinshank (Long Beach, N.Y./Long Beach), senior attacker Chris Carman (Alamo, Calif./Monte Vista), Siefert, and Heckman--during a six-minute span that stretched into the fourth period.

Sophomore goalie David Gal (Amherst, Mass./Loomis Chaffee-Conn.) stopped a game-high 20 shots for the Bombers, while Scranton sophomore goalie Jeremy Dowiak (Hackettstown, N.J./West Morris) made 17. Ithaca held a slight advantage in shots, 36-35, and ground balls, 42-41.

Both of Scranton's losses this season have been to nationally-ranked teams. The Royals will return to action next Saturday, February 7, against Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, beginning at 1:00 p.m.

Score by Periods  1    2    3    4    Total
Ithaca (2-0)      3    3    4    2     12
Scranton (1-2)    1    0    2    3      6

Goals:
Ithaca-12 (Siefert-7, Heckman-2, Carman-1, Bush-1, Weinshank-1)
Scranton-6 (Youngstrom-3, Napp-3)

Assists:
Ithaca-9 (Carman-2, Heckman-2, Siefert-2, Bush-1, Cutter-1, Silipo-1)
Scranton-3 (Dowd-1, Kornobis-1, Rufo-1)

Saves:
Ithaca-20 (Gal-20, 6 goals allowed, 60:00)
Scranton-17 (Dowiak-17, 12 goals allowed, 60:00)

2009-02-28