Saratoga Springs, N.Y. – The Skidmore College men's lacrosse team opened Liberty League play with a 9-4 win over Hamilton College, Saturday evening at Wachenheim Field. The Thoroughbreds have won five straight to improve to 6-1 overall, while the Continentals fall to 3-3.

Skidmore dominated play in the first quarter, grabbing a 3-0 lead on goals by Nick Coppola (Basking Ridge, N.J.), Jeremy Goldman (Port Washington, N.Y.), and Rob Lutin (Port Washington, N.Y.).

Hamilton got on the board at 12:12 of the second when Justin Williams (New Canaan, Conn.) scored from Peter Gerrity (Cumberland, Maine) to cut the lead to 3-1. That would be all the offense the Continentals could come up with in the half. Matt Levesque (Duxbury, Mass.) scored the first of his three goals at 6:02 from Cory Barkoff (Syosset, N.Y.) to give the Thoroughbreds a 4-1 lead at the break.

After being out shot 20-6 in the first half, Hamilton came out strong in the third quarter with goals by Marc Albu (Darien, Conn.) at 12:55 and 3:06 to make it a one-goal game, 4-3.

Skidmore regrouped and scored three goals in the final 3:06 of the third to end the Continental rally. Matt Levesque sandwiched a pair of goals at 2:40 and :17 around a Tyler Arnot (Waterbury, Vt.) goal at 1:19. Arnot was leveled after his goal, giving the Thoroughbreds a man-up that ended two seconds before Levesque's goal.

Stephen Lefebvre (Niskayuna, N.Y.) kept Hamilton in the game with a man-up goal at 7:57 to make it 7-4. The Skidmore defense responded by shutting the Continentals down the rest of the way, while Tom Levesque (Duxbury, Mass.) and Matt Campbell (Wilton, Conn.) closed out the scoring for the 9-4 win.

John Capitani (Garden City, N.Y.) had 14 saves and five ground balls in net for the Thoroughbreds, including seven in the third quarter. Christian Kunhardt (Glen Arm, Md.) recorded 15 saves for Hamilton, with 11 in the first half. Barkoff won 11 of 16 face offs for Skidmore.

The Thoroughbreds are at Rensselaer on April 2 at 4:00 p.m.

2008-03-29