Owens leads Morrisville State men's lacrosse in decisive victory over Keuka

The Morrisville State College men's lacrosse team began the road to defending last years conference championship title, handing Keuka College a decisive 15-10 defeat in North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) action Saturday afternoon on Drake Field in Morrisville.



Morrisville State improves to 4-1 overall, 1-0 in conference play. Keuka drops to 1-4, 0-1 in NEAC action.



Adam Lewis (Painted Post, NY) gave Morrisville State an early 1-0 lead, netting the first goal of the day off an assist from Brandon Macera (Chittenango, NY). Mike McGinnis (Syracuse, NY) extended the lead to two, with a man up score at 11:27 from Thomas Owens (Cazenovia, NY) before Keuka stormed back to tie the contest with two quick scores within 26 seconds.



Owens regained the lead for the Mustangs with 8:02 remaining, as Morrisville State claimed the 4-3 advantage after one.



In the second quarter, the Mustangs held Keuka to just one score, while tallying two of their own for the 6-4 lead at the break.



Morrisville State rattled off three straight at the start of the third quarter to take a five goal lead with just over nine minutes to go, but Keuka's Mark Butto (Rochester, NY) responded to ignite the Storm attack with a tally at the 7:42 mark. Less than six seconds later, Kaisch Wheeler (Phoenix, NY) added another for Keuka to cut the Mustang lead to three, but Owens added two, regaining a four goal advantage for Morrisville.



The Mustangs put four past Storm keeper Brett Leonard (Syracuse, NY) in the final quarter to Keuka's two, claiming the 15-10 conference victory.



Owens led all scorers on the day with a collegiate best five goals and three assists, while Lewis added three, assisting another. Brendan Shannon (Stanhope, NJ) tallied two goals while five additional teammates found the back of the net.



Michael Hinchey (Lake Katrine, NY) recorded the win in net, making 12 stops.



Keuka's Gino Marcello (Rochester, NY) had four goals and an assist to lead the Storm in the loss, with Butto adding two. Four additional teammates netted one a piece.



Leonard had nine saves in the loss, as Morrisville held the 43-31 advantage in shots.



Morrisville State returns to the field Tuesday, traveling to conference opponent SUNY Cobleskill for a 4 p.m. face-off.