UTICA, NY - The Utica College men's lacrosse team lost to nationally-ranked No. 8 Ithaca College 17-5 in Empire 8 Conference action Saturday afternoon at Charles A. Gaetano stadium.

The Pioneers are now 4-5 overall and 0-2 in conference while the Bombers improve to 9-1 and 2-0 in the E8.

Ithaca got on the board first after 10 minutes of scoreless play when Kevin Bush (Arapahoe, CO/East Point, FL) scored his 17th goal of the season with 5:29 left in the first. The Bombers went up 2-0 1:10 later when Craig Lepiane (West Irondequoit/Rochester) connected with Logan Bobzian (Arapahoe/Centennial, CO) who beat UC goalie Anthony Carnevale (Seneca Falls, NY/Mynderse Academy).

Ithaca took a commanding 3-0 lead after Bush netted his second goal of the game with 1:24 left in the quarter. Leading scorer Matt Nelligan (Pingree School/Rowley, MA), who assisted on the goal, tallied his 39th point of the season. IC led 3-0 headed into the second quarter.

The Bombers netted the first three goals of the second quarter to take a 6-0 lead.

The Pioneers got on the board at 8:59 when freshman attacker David O'Connell (Syracuse, NY/Bishop Ludden) made an inside move and beat Ithaca goalie Dennis Butler (Pleasantville/Pleasantville) top-shelf for his tenth goal of the season. Ithaca answered right back as Bush tallied his third goal of the game and 19th of the season. Tim Pfeffer (Penfield/Penfield) assisted on the goal as the Bombers took a 7-1 lead.

Ryan McGowan (Northport, NY/Northport) scored the Pioneers second goal of the game with 10 seconds left in the half. Senior midfielder Brandon Kaminski (Bernhards Bay, NY/Paul V. Moore) assisted on McGowan's seventh goal of the season. Ithaca took an 8-2 lead into intermission.

The Bombers scored the first four goals of the second half over the course of 9:09. Cinteneo, Lepiane, Bobzien and Nelligan scored for the Bombers as they took a 12-2 lead.

Ithaca opened the fourth quarter scoring when Chris Carman (Monte Vista/Alamos, CA) ripped a shot past Carnevale from 13 yards out to give the Bombers a 16-2 lead with 12:59 left in the game. Nic Heckman (Sparta/Sparta, NJ) recorded his first assist of the season on the goal.

Senior captain Nick Evanoff (Cicero, NY/Cicero-North Syracuse) netted his second goal of the season on an assist from Aaron Benoit (Cazenovia, NY/Cazenovia) with 8:00 left in the game to make it 16-3.

Senior Justin Schmidt (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) beat IC goalie Collin Meadow (Downingtown East/Downingtown, PA) with 3:55 remaining to give UC their fourth goal of the contest. Junior midfielder Kory Buckley (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) closed out the scoring for the Pioneers with 21 seconds left in the game.

Butler made eight saves in net for the Bombers and Carnevale stopped eight shots for UC. Reserve goalie Ben Connery (Homer/Homer) stopped two fourth quarter shots for IC.

Bush and Lepiane each tallied a game-high four goals for the Bombers. Ten other Ithaca players tallied at least one point.

UC returns to action at conference foe Nazareth College Wednesday at 4 p.m. The Bombers travel to Cortland Wednesday to take on the Red Dragons at 7 p.m. in non-conference action.
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