Utica, NY – The Utica College men's lacrosse team will host Ithaca College on Saturday for UC's first Empire 8 contest of the season. The game is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m.
 
Last Time Out: In their last game, the Pioneers improved to 2-2 on the season with an 11-9 win over Keuka College … Brickman House (Oneida, WI/Pulaski) led the team with four total points on two goals and two assists … Ryan Desveaux (Bowmanville, ONT/St. Stephen Catholic) and Jake Bratek (Syracuse, NY/Jamesville-Dewitt) were able to net two goals each for UC … Andrew Davi (New Hartford, NY/New Hartford) registered two assists in the game while Sam Davi (New Hartford, NY/New Hartford) scored the first goal of his collegiate career … Goalkeeper Parker Smith (Dexter, NY/General Brown) earned the win, as he made nine saves and scooped up seven ground balls.
 
Signs of Improvement: In the match against Keuka the Pioneers allowed nine goals, the lowest score given up so far this season … This correlates to the turnover numbers as UC took care of the ball better and played better defense than they have in the three previous games … Over the first three games the Pioneers averaged 20.3 turnovers and 13 caused turnovers per game … In the win over Keuka, the team caused a season-high 16 turnovers and committed a season-low 15 turnovers … In the first three contests of the season the team averaged 28 ground balls per game while in the win over Keuka, the team scooped up a season-high of 38 … Improved defense along with more precise ball control resulted in a season-high of 44 shots for the Pioneers and ultimately a victory.
 
Scooping Up the Ball: Against Keuka College, four Pioneers tallied five or more ground balls in the contest … Senior defenseman Rusty Dessert (Islip, NY/Islip) recorded a career-high of eight ground balls in the game … Dessert was not the only player to earn a career-high in ground balls, as goalkeeper Parker Smith (Dexter, NY/General Brown) also scooped a career best seven ground balls for the Pioneers … Tyler Nicolaus (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy) and Nick Finnegan (Bayshore, NY/Islip) snagged five ground balls each in the win.
 
Scouting Ithaca: The Ithaca Bombers are currently undefeated and sit at a record of 7-0 overall and 1-0 in the Empire 8 … The team most recently beat SUNY Oneonta by a score of 12-6 … Jack Shumway led the Bombers to victory with his five goals and one assist in the contest … Teammate Will Witter recorded five total points on three goals and two assists … Goalkeeper Jack Deragon made seven saves in the game on his way to earning the win … Shumway currently leads the Empire 8 with 32 goals so far this season and is averaging 6.3 points per game.
 
Against Ithaca: In last year's matchup between UC and Ithaca, the Pioneers fell on the road by a score of 18-4 … Brickman House (Oneida, WI/Pulaski) was able to score two goals in the game while Nick Yelich (Lancaster, NY/Depew) added one of his own … Ithaca's Kaelan Fitzpatrick netted six goals for the Bombers in the contest … Utica's last win over their conference opponent was during the 2010 season, as the Pioneers won 9-5.
 
Looking Ahead: The Pioneers will return to action on March 29^th, as they host SUNY Oswego … The game is set to begin at 4 p.m. at Charles A. Gaetano Stadium.