GALLOWAY, N.J. – The Cortland men's lacrosse team assisted on 20 of its 24 goals in earning a 24-6 victory over UMass Boston Saturday afternoon in the first round of the NCAA Div. III Tournament at Stockton University. The Red Dragons won their ninth consecutive game, improving to 11-3 on the season, and advanced to face unbeaten and third-ranked RIT in the second round on Sunday at 3 p.m. The Beacons dropped their first game of the season and finish at 9-1.

Eleven different players netted goals for Cortland, led by freshman Colton Smith (Naples/Penn Yan Academy) who finished with a career-best five goals and one assist. Junior Dante Yacavone (Homer) tallied a game-high seven points on four goals and three assists. Senior Brandon Stiles (Mastic/Eastport-South Manor) and sophomore Matthew Thrasher (Vestal) each contributed three goals and two assists.

Freshman Bobby Kratochvil (Setauket/Ward Melville) scored two goals and added two assists, sophomore Sean Barrett (Lynbrook) notched a pair of goals, junior Pat Doyen (Miller Place) had one goal and three assists, senior Zak Jones (East Quogue/Westhampton Beach) chipped in with one goal and two assists and junior Tim Grosso (Hauppauge) added one goal and one assist. Seniors Steven Veteri (Mount Vernon/Yorktown) and Jacob Rivers (Homer) scored one goal apiece.

Junior goalie Marc Esposito (West Babylon) made 12 saves and allowed four goals through three quarters. Freshman Evan Alfano (Webster/Webster Schroeder) stopped four shots in the fourth quarter. Senior Brian Williams (Holtsville/Sachem East) won 13-of-17 faceoffs and scooped up a game-high 11 ground balls, and junior Dominick Natale (Homer) secured four ground balls.

Conor Lenfest led UMass Boston with two goals and an assist. Darragh Fahey scored two goals, Jack Riley tallied one goal and one assist and Gavin Admirand netted a goal.

Christian Meinhold started in the cage for the Beacons, recording 22 saves through three quarters before giving way to Trevor Koppy, who turned aside three shots in the fourth quarter. Jack Dobrzynski won 11 faceoffs and collected five ground balls. Chris Palin caused three turnovers, and Patrick Colburn finished with three ground balls.

Cortland opened up an 8-1 after the first quarter as six different players scored. The Beacons netted the first two goals of the second quarter to make it an 8-3 game, but the Red Dragons closed out the period with four straight goals for a 12-3 lead. After Stiles and Lenfest traded goals to open the second half, Cortland put the game out of reach with a seven-goal run to close the third quarter for a 20-4 lead. The advantage grew to 23-4 before the Beacons netted a pair of goals and Grosso completed the scoring for the 24-6 final.
 
Cortland 24, UMass Boston 6
 
GAME SUMMARY:
 
Team                 1-2-3-4   Final
UMass Boston   1-2-1-2       6
Cortland             8-4-8-4     24

Scoring (Goals-Assists):
UMass Boston: Conor Lenfest 2-1, Darragh Fahey 2-0, Jack Riley 1-1, Gavin Admirand 1-0
Cortland: Colton Smith 5-1, Dante Yacavone 4-3, Brandon Stiles 3-2, Matthew Thrasher 3-2, Bobby Kratochvil 2-2, Sean Barrett 2-0, Pat Doyen 1-3, Zak Jones 1-2, Tim Grosso 1-1, Steven Veteri 1-0, Jacob Rivers 1-0, Colin Peers 0-1, Brian Williams 0-1, Anthony Marcuccilli 0-1, Mike Nicholson 0-1
 
Goalkeepers:
UMass Boston: Christian Meinhold, 22 saves (20 GA in 45:00), Trevor Koppy, 3 saves (4 GA in 15:00)
Cortland: Marc Esposito, 12 saves (4 GA in 45:00), Evan Alfano, 4 saves (2 GA in 15:00)

Shots: Cortland 61, UMass Boston 35
Ground Balls: Cortland 49, UMass Boston 23
Turnovers: UMass Boston 28, Cortland 20
Caused Turnovers: Cortland 14, UMass Boston 6
Clears: Cortland 22-of-25, UMass Boston 20-of-31
Faceoffs Won: Cortland 21, UMass Boston 12
Penalties: UMass Boston 10-9:00, Cortland 5-4:00
Extra-Man Offense: Cortland 4-10, UMass Boston 1-4

Records after game: Cortland (Red Dragons) 11-3; UMass Boston (Beacons) 9-1