Live Video / Live Stats

Utica, NY (4/21/14) – The Utica College men's lacrosse team (7-7, 3-3 E8) will travel to Empire 8 Conference rival St. John Fisher College on Wednesday for a 4 p.m. faceoff on the turf at Growney Stadium.

Last Time Out: The Pioneers started in a 4-0 hole at the end of the first quarter against Elmira, but a big eight-goal second quarter led by Christian Reiller (Salamanca, NY/Genesee CC)'s four tallies, UC went into the half ahead 8-6 … Utica outscored Elmira 10-6 in the second half to earn the key conference victory, 18-12 … The Pioneers were led by Reiller who had six goals and an assist, Trent Jacobs (Akwesasne/Brewster Academy) who netted three goals and dished out three assists, and senior captain Joe Schoen (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) who had six assists.

The O'Reiller Factor: Junior attackman Christian Reiller (Salamanca, NY/Genesee CC) is the only UC player to register a point in every game this season (14 games) … With 27 goals on the year, he would need seven more goals between the last two games to crack the top ten for most goals in a single season at UC … Reiller has had eight different games where he has three points or more and is 11^th in the conference in goals per game (1.93).

Goalie of the Week: Junior goalie Andrew DiOrio (Greenlawn, NY/CW Post) was named the Empire 8 Conference Goalie of the Week on Monday … DiOrio guided the Pioneers to a 1-1 week after posting 23 saves over the course of two games … DiOrio has registered at least 11 saves in six of his last eight outings and he currently ranks second in the E8 in saves per game … He has a 10.45 goals against average and 130 saves this year. 

Not Your Average Joe: With ten assists in his last three games, Joe Schoen (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) cannot be stop from creating goals for the Pioneers … After recently passing his brother Steve '07 (65 assists) for second all-time in assists at Utica, Joe now has 74 assists for his career … Nate Jobson '05 holds the all-time record at Utica with 78 and now has Schoen in his rear view mirror with two games left to get to the magic 78 … Last season against St. John Fisher and Houghton (UC's last two opponents), Schoen had three assists against Fisher and one against Houghton.

Bash Brothers: Defensemen Tom Byrne (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster) and Dan Duffy (New Hartford, NY/New Hartford) are a tough defensive duo to score on … The two's combined 53 caused turnovers is the second highest duo in the conference (Stevens 74) … Byrne needs just one ground ball and six caused turnovers to equal his output from last season that put him on the Empire 8 All-Conference Second Team … Duffy, a four year starter at Utica, has 94 career caused turnovers … Duffy is currently ninth all-time in career ground balls (133) … With help from junior Sean Flanagan (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) and senior Josh Torrey (Westmoreland, NH/Monadnock), the Pioneers are leading the Empire 8 in caused turnovers per game (10.00).

Scouting St. John Fisher: The Cardinals (9-4, 5-1 E8) are coming off a 14-5 win at Alfred on Saturday … Fisher is led by Brett Farrell (22g,11a), Gary Bova (19g,18a), and Jeff Wester (13g,32a) who have 49.7% of the team's total points … Last season, the Pioneers beat the Cardinals 10-9 in 2OT as Ben Winkler (Rodman, NY/IHC) scored on a pass from Joe Schoen (Whitesboro, NY/Whitesboro) with 3:16 left in the second overtime … The win brought the Pioneers to the Empire 8 playoffs for the first time in the program's 14-year history … The Cardinals hold a 5-7 advantage all-time against the Pioneers.

Looking Ahead: Utica will travel to Houghton College to close out the regular season on Saturday … Faceoff is set for 1 p.m.