Endicott 10, St. John Fisher 13; Cardinals slip past Endicott at Flower City Cup

ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Playing in their first of two games at the Flower City Cup in Rochester, New York, the Endicott men's lacrosse team were tripped up with a 13-10 loss to St. John Fisher despite two goals apiece for senior captain Connor McCormack (Norwalk, Conn.) and sophomore attackers Joshua Tordik (Sayville, N.Y.) and Kyle Weber (West Hartford, Conn.).

The Gulls (3-2, 1-0 CCC) finish their weekend trip with a game at #5 RIT on Sunday at 12:00 pm.  Endicott is 0-2 versus RIT with their most recent result coming one year ago, a 11-8 loss to the Tigers on neutral ground at Harvard University.

St. John Fisher ran their early season win-streak to four as the Cardinals used a seven-point game, which included four goals and three assists, by junior attacker Jeff Wester (Livonia, N.Y.) to improve to 5-1 overall.  Fisher will take on Roger Williams at home, Sunday at noon.

The first quarter saw the Gulls and Cardinals battle back-and-forth with the two teams exchanging goals before settling on a 3-3 tie heading into the second quarter.  Senior Kyle Burke (Haverhill, Mass.) netted Endicott's first goal of the game to tie the scoreboard at 1-1 with 8:31 remaining in the opening quarter.  Weber, who scored 14 goals in his freshman campaign last season, tied that marked with his 14^th goal already this spring before Tordik capped off the scoring in the first with an unassisted tally with 2:23 left on the clock. 

Fisher shifted momentum in their direction at the start of the second quarter with two straight goals by sophomore Nick Rossi (Bath, N.Y.) and Wester as the Cardinals built their first two-goal lead of the game.  After goals by Endictott's Kevin Butler (Natick, Mass.), assisted by Jonathan Morgan (Lake Panamoka, N.Y.), and Tordik tied it up at 5-5, St. John Fisher delivered two quick strikes at just 53 seconds apart right before halftime to once again go up by two goals. 

Wester and St. John Fisher came out hot in the second half as the junior netted his third of the game, off an assist from Joe Gaug (Shenendehowa, N.Y.), to create a three-goal deficit for the Blue and Green.  Endicott responded, however, with two unassisted goals in-a-row by Weber and McCormack to pull within one at 8-7.  The Cardinals offensive took control of the game by scoring four of the next five goals to hold a 12-8 lead with 9:43 left in regulation.

St. John Fisher's rally was interrupted only by Endicott freshman midfielder Mitchell Tapley's (Falmouth, Maine) first collegiate goal at the 1:29 mark of the third quarter.  His goal was assisted by McCormack.

In the final quarter, the Gulls were outscored 3-2 with McCormack and junior midfielder Chris Murphy (Holden, Mass.) accounting for Endicott's scoring.  Murphy's goal was his sixth of the season.

In net, freshman goalie Cameron Bell (Falmouth, Maine) faced 23 shots and made 10 saves but suffered first loss of the season.  His counterpart, junior Jamie Campagna (Liverpool, N.Y.) made 11 saves in the win.

Face-off man Sam Ozycz (Cheshire, Conn.) 57.6%  (15-of-26) of his attempts against his Cardinal opposition with eight groundballs.  Burke as well as fellow defenseman Anthony Martignetti (Winchester, Mass.) each caused two turnovers with three groundballs.  Sophomore Harrison Cotter (Lordship, Conn.) also scooped up four groundballs in the loss.

Endicott was an impressive 18-of-19 on clear attempts.  Penalty-wise, the Gulls spent three and a half minutes man-down on five infractions compared to just two infractions for one minute for St. John Fisher.