CORTLAND, NY – The nationally 15th-ranked Cortland men's lacrosse team survived an early test from visiting Oneonta, and claimed the 2025 State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) title with a 19-9 victory on Saturday afternoon on Grady Field. Cortland improves to 17-2, while Oneonta ends the season at 9-10.
 
Cortland earned the conference's automatic berth into the NCAA Division III Tournament with the win. The Red Dragons will await their opponent and location of the game, which will be announced on the NCAA Selection Show on tomorrow at 9 p.m. on NCAA.com. Cortland was ranked 11th in the NCAA Power Index (NPI) entering the game, and the Red Dragons will likely receive a first-round bye and play next Saturday as the second seed in a four-team regional.
 
Tournament MVP Ryan Scanlon (Cornelius. NC/William Amos Hough) scored three goals for Cortland. In two conference tournament games, he tallied seven goals and added one assist. Klay Stuver (Fairport), Kole Stuver (Fairport), Sam Rothman (Dix Hills/Half Hollow Hills East), Sean Kavanagh (North Canton, OH/Hoover), and Travis Wagner (Penfield) were also selected to the all-tournament team.
 
The Stuver brothers each scored six points on five goals and an assist to lead Cortland in the game, while Rothman and Nathan Nagengast (Bay Shore) recorded two goals and an assist apiece. Wagner stopped seven shots in goal to earn his 15th win of the season.
 
Jamie O'Neil led Oneonta with two goals and two assists, while goalkeeper Mark Restivo made 15 saves. The pair were joined on the all-tournament team by Aidan Greene, who scored a goal, had two caused turnovers, and recorded seven ground balls.
 
Klay Stuver gave Cortland an early lead just 41 seconds into the contest, but Oneonta responded with three consecutive goals, two by O'Neil, to lead 3-1 with 10:11 remaining.
 
After a timeout to regroup, Jack O'Brien (Babylon) won the faceoff, which allowed Cortland to cut the deficit to one on a goal by Scanlon. Oneonta re-established a two-goal advantage on a man-up goal with 8:00 remaining.
 
Cortland then scored seven straight goals in 15:03 of game action to flip momentum and take control of the contest. Klay Stuver scored a goal off a feed from Caden Yancey (Fayetteville/Fayettville-Manlius), and Scanlon tied the game with a man-up goal, before Kavanagh gave Cortland a 5-4 lead with 2:14 remaining in the first quarter.
 
Klay Stuver, Kole Stuver, Yancey, and Scanlon each scored a goal for Cortland to take a 9-4 lead with 6:58 remaining in the half. Over the final 6:36 of the half, each team scored three times, including a goal by Oneonta with under two seconds left on the clock, for a 12-7 halftime lead for Cortland.
 
Cortland outscored Oneonta 4-1 in the third quarter, with Kole Stuver and Rothman each netting a pair of goals, to put Cortland up 16-8 heading into the fourth quarter.
 
The Stuver brothers each scored a goal in the span of 13 seconds midway through the fourth quarter to give Cortland its largest lead of the game at 18-8. After an Oneonta goal, Nagengast sealed the Cortland victory with a goal with 2:47 remaining for the 19-9 final score.
 
2025 SUNYAC Men's Lacrosse All-Tournament Team
Drew Costello, Potsdam
Gavin Elston, Oswego
Aidan Greene, Oneonta
Jamie O'Neil, Oneonta
Mark Restivo, Oneonta
Sean Kavanagh, Cortland
Sam Rothman, Cortland
Kole Stuver, Cortland
Klay Stuver, Cortland
Travis Wagner, Cortland
MVP - Ryan Scanlon, Cortland