BOXSCORE
In a chilly Eunice Kennedy Shriver Stadium on a rainy Saturday afternoon The College at Brockport Men's Lacrosse defensive unit stepped up and shined the brightest at a crucial point of the season.
Senior goalie Jon Fiorillo (Painted Post, NY/Corning West) made a career-high 23 saves to help the Golden Eagles hang on for an 11-10 win over Plattsburgh in a State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) win.
Fiorillo made eight crucial saves in the fourth-quarter to preserve a Brockport (4-7 Overall/1-3 SUNYAC) lead that was as high as five goals at one point in the second half. Plattsburgh (9-3/2-1) lost its first conference game of the season.
“It's a huge win for us, we really needed this one.” Fiorillo said after the win. “Our defense did a great job this week working on the scouting report, it was a big help and we shut them (Plattsburgh) down.”
The defense, including the four starters senior Mike Sanderson (Canton, NY/H.C. Williams), sophomore Mike Park (Cortland, NY/Homer) and freshmen Steve Dalton (Amherst, NY/Amherst) and Colin King (Jamesville, NY/Christian Brothers Academy) held Plattsburgh's SUNYAC leading offense scoreless for 20:53 spanning the second and third quarters. Brockport held Plattsburgh four goals under its season average of 14, and its second-lowest total of the season despite 53 Cardinal shots.
Fiorillo made several crucial stops late, highlighted by several one-on-one matchups against SUNYAC leading scorer Kyle Norchi in the fourth quarter, shutting down the offensive threat inches outside the crease.
On the offensive end, freshman Brendon Rothfuss (Webster, NY/Webster Thomas) scored a career-high four goals off six shots, including the eventual game-winning goal at the 2:55 mark of the fourth quarter.
Rothfuss has scored 10 goals in the last four games, and 17 this season, second-highest on the team behind senior Andy Hilton (Rochester, NY/Gates-Chili) who scored three goals in the win.
Rothfuss and Hilton scored in the first four minutes of the game for an early 2-0 lead before Plattsburgh scored three goals to take a 3-2 lead.
The Golden Eagle offense jumped to a 6-3 lead four minutes into the second quarter, fueled by two goals from Rothfuss, Hilton's second goal and an unassisted goal from junior Nate Thomas (Cortland, NY/Cortland). Brockport led 6-4 at the halftime break.
Brockport took its largest lead of the game, 9-4, at the 5:12 mark of the third quarter after the Golden Eagles scored three goals as sophomore Jesse Elliott (Clifton Park, NY/Shenendehowa), junior Brad Weber (Rochester, NY/Gates-Chili), and Hilton each tallied early in the second half.
Plattsburgh battled back with five of the next six goals to trim the lead to 10-9 before Rothfuss scored the lone man-up goal of the game for Brockport with 2:55 remaining put Brockport up 11-9 and Plattsburgh added a late man-up goal with Brockport collecting three consecutive penalties.
Brockport returns to Eunice Kennedy Shriver Stadium for their next game Apr. 23 for a 1 pm conference game against Oneonta.
