UTICA, NY – The Utica College men's lacrosse team picked up its fourth straight win on Wednesday afternoon as the Pioneers topped visiting Alfred State 17-5 in non-conference action at Charles A. Gaetano Stadium.  Sophomore Dominic Castiglia (Liverpool, NY/Liverpool) posted a career-high eight goals to pace the Pioneers. Junior Ryan Desveaux (Bowmanville, ONT/St. Stephen Catholic) totaled a career-high seven points for the Pioneers on three goals and four assists. Desveaux now has 16 points in his last three outings.

Nick Finnegan (Bayshore, NY/Islip) won 19-of-24 face-offs for the Pioneers and also picked up 10 ground balls, marking his second double-digit ground ball effort this season.

Utica outscored Alfred 14-3 in the final 45 minutes of the contest to pull away for the victory.  The Pioneers improved to 6-3 overall on the season headed into Saturday's Empire 8 showdown against Alfred University at 4 p.m.

Utica's Brickman House (Oneida, WI/Pulaski) totaled five points on two goals and three assists, while senior classmate Liam Wheatley (Rochester, NY/Webster Schroeder) registered four points (one goal, three assists). Andrew Davi (New Hartford, NY/New Hartford), Ryan Jordan (Cicero, NY/Cicero North Syracuse), Rusty Dessert (Islip, NY/Islip) and Tyler Giachinta (Cold Spring, NY/Haldane) each caused three turnovers on the defensive end for Utica. Tyler Nicolaus (Rome, NY/Rome Free Academy) picked up six ground balls.

Parker Smith (Dexter, NY/General Brown) stopped six shots in between the pipes for Utica. Nick Yelich (Lancaster, NY/Depew), Sam Davi (New Hartford, NY/New Hartford) and Craig DiSanto (Montebello, NY/Suffern) also added one goal each.

Utica opened up a 3-2 first quarter lead behind one goal from Desveaux and two from Castiglia. UC then outscored the visitors 6-1 in the second quarter to take a 9-3 lead into the half. The Pioneers went on to outscore Alfred 6-2 in the third and 2-0 in the fourth to earn the 12 goal victory.

Utica out shot the visitors by a convincing margin of 65-16 on the day. The Pioneers also forced 38 turnovers and won the ground ball battle, 50-22.

AJ Soto and Teddy Alvarado led Alfred (2-9) with two points each while goalie Ryan Amidon made 25 stops in the loss.

Brickman House (Oneida, WI/Pulaski) leads UC this season with 34 points (22 goals, 12 assists), while Castiglia has 33.  Castiglia now leads the team with 27 goals.