UTICA, NY—The Utica College men's lacrosse team (0-1, 0-0 Empire 8) will travel to local rival SUNY Polytechnic Institute on Saturday for a non-conference game.  Face-off is set for 1 p.m. as Utica looks to pick up its first win of the young season.

ALL-TIME AGAINST SUNY POLY: UC is 7-0 all-time against SUNY Poly … The Pioneers have outscored the Wildcats 138-20 over the course of those seven meetings … Utica won four straight games against SUNY Poly from 2000-2003, then the two teams did not meet again until 2012, and the Pioneers have rattled off four straight wins since.  

LAST TIME AGAINST SUNY POLY: The Pioneers won their season-opener for the fourth consecutive year last season as they netted seven third quarter goals on their way to a 14-4 victory over SUNY Poly at Charles A. Gaetano Stadium on March 6^th … Utica outshot the visitors 62-25 on the afternoon and eight different players registered at least two points.

SEASON-OPENER: UC is coming off of an 11-4 loss to St. Lawrence in its season opener on Wednesday at Charles A. Gaetano Stadium… Utica got down early and put up a valiant defensive effort but couldn't quite get momentum back on its side as the young offense was held to just four goals … St. Lawrence (2-0) is receiving votes in the latest USILA national poll.

CONTROLLING THE CIRCLE: Senior midfielder Zack Stevenson (Elbridge, NY/Jordan-Elbridge) will be looking to continue his dominance in the face-off circle… In the loss versus St. Lawrence, Stevenson won 11 of the 19 face-offs he took for a percentage of .579… Stevenson also led UC in groundballs in the season-opener with seven.

OFFENSIVE PRODUCTION: Offensive leaders from Wednesday's opener were freshman Ryan Desveaux (Bowmanville, ONT/St. Stephen Catholic), who collected his first two collegiate goals, and junior transfer Patrick Mulligan (Commack, NY/Commack) who also collected two points, both of which were assists… Junior Liam Wheatley (Rochester, NY/Webster Schroeder) and sophomore Matthew Miller (Geneva, NY/Geneva) contributed a goal each for the Pioneers, and junior Alex Finnegan (Bay Shore, NY/Islip) also contributed one assist... The Pioneers will be looking for more offense as they head to SUNY Poly where they have collected 53 goals in their last three meetings.

SAVE THE DAY: Senior goaltender Andrew DiOrio (Greenlawn, NY/CW Post) did what he could in net for the Pioneers as he faced a relentless St. Lawrence offensive attack… He collected a total of nine saves on 27 total shots faced … He now has a career total of 223 saves, ranking fifth in school history… He needs just 14 more saves to move into fourth place and overtake former UC goalie Joe Davis '12.

MEET THE WILDCATS: Saturday's meeting with Utica will be SUNY's first game of their 2015 season… Last year, they had an overall record of 3-11 and went 2-5 in conference games… The Wildcats lost their top four scorers from last year with junior Nicholas Levanti (11 goals, 16 assists) stepping in as their top scoring returner.

REVIEWING THE RECORD BOOK: Tom Byrne (Lancaster, NY/Lancaster) currently ranks seventh all-time at UC with 179 career ground balls and looks to become the sixth player in program-history to pick up 200+ ground balls in a career this season … He needs five ground balls to surpass Pioneer Hall of Famer Ben Mack for sixth on the College's all-time ground ball list … Byrne also needs 13 caused turnovers to crack 100 for his career … Stevenson currently ranks eighth all-time at UC with 178 career ground balls … He also has 312 career face-off victories.