MARCY, N.Y. – The SUNY Poly Men's Lacrosse Team (1-1) beat Canton (0-3) in thrilling fashion on Saturday afternoon. Andre Shattell (Syracuse, N.Y. / Henniger High School) scored the game winner with 40 seconds to play off a Neil Nembhard (Commack N.Y. / Commack) feed to beat the Kangaroos 8-7.
The Wildcats were led by Nicholas Levanti (Clayville, N.Y. / New Hartford) who contributed 5 goals on the day.
Both teams were held scoreless until Canton broke through with 8:22 to play in the first quarter. SUNY Poly scored the final two goals of the quarter to go up 2-1 at the break. Shane Joswick (New York Mills, N.Y. / MVCC) started off the scoring for the Wildcats and Levanti started his day with the second goal.
SUNY Poly wouldn't score again for the remainder of the first half and went into halftime trailing Canton 4-2.
The Wildcats and Kangaroos exchanged goals throughout the 3rd quarter ending with the home team trailing 6-4 going into the final quarter.
SUNY Poly took control in the last 15 minutes scoring four 4th quarter goals. The most important one being Shattell's game winner which was set up by strong defensive play. Canton gained control of the ball with 1:35 to play and proceeded to call a timeout with 1:20 remaining. The Wildcats came out of the timeout hungry for the ball and Joswick caused a critical turnover to regain possession.
The home team took advantage of the turnover, producing a quick transition that ended in Nembhard's stick. The junior wasted no time finding his teammate for the game winning goal. Canton would win the following faceoff for one more possession, but was unable to capitalize.
Joswick finished with 2 goals, 6 ground balls, and a team-high 3 caused turnovers while going 6 for 16 in faceoffs. Zach Evans (Whitesboro, N.Y. / Whitesboro) led the team with 8 ground balls.
RJ Ferrucci (Rome, N.Y. / Rome Free Acad.) had a strong game between pipes recording 11 saves.
The Wildcats return to action Wednesday, March 18th in a road game against Alfred.