UTICA, N.Y. – Saturday evening brought with it a fog of bad luck for the Wildcats (2-6, 2-1) as they matched up against the Medaille College Mavericks (3-2, 2-0). At the whistle of the first face-off, a surge of intensity flooded both teams. Medaille brought to the field a meticulous confidence from their previous victory over Lancaster Bible College while SUNYIT brought with them a positive but anxious hunger to break their streak of losses. A second-half heartbreaker sent the Wildcats right back down into that rut – but this time, the outcome will affect them within the conference.
"We knew we were in for a tough fight," commented So. Captain Amanda Bohne (Clay, NY/Cicero-North Syracuse High School). "We [still] came out strong and ready to go."
For the first ten minutes, SUNYIT maintained possession on the draw but the Mavericks dominated the scoreboard scoring three consecutive goals against 'IT Goalie Aubrey Campbell (Auburn, NY/Auburn High School).
After the Mavericks maintained the lead, the Wildcats flipped the switch feeding in three of their own passed Maverick goalie Chris Balestracci. The three goal run started and ended with Veronica Metz (Morrisville, NY/ Morrisville High School/ MVCC) as she placed two shots. Somewhere in the middle, Jr. Captain Taviot Jackowski (LaFayette, NY/LaFayette High School) found the back of the net and the three goals combined tied up the game with nearly 12 minutes left.
When Medaille answered back with their bounce shot to score, SUNYIT's Taviot Jackowski responded once again to tie the game back up (4-4).
A made free position shot for the Mavericks set them on a scoring frenzy building up the score (11-4) for the half.
The break did little for the Wildcats, letting one more passed them nearly two minutes into the second period (12-4). Taviot Jackowski's goal at the (-28:11) minute mark was the next highlight play, and the last significant one for SUNYIT. Within the next 25 minutes, 'IT let in another eight shots with no comeback. Final (20-5)
"I [broke] down in the net," stated Campbell. "It trickled through to the rest of the team but we win [as a team] and we lose as a team, so we will get out of this rut [together]."
The next match-up for the Wildcats will be Monday, April 2nd on Roberts Wesleyan turf at 5:00pm.