BoxROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The senior attack tandem of
Troy Haefele and
Luke Wooters took center stage Saturday as host Nazareth opened its 2016 men's lacrosse season in successful fashion with an 18-6 non-conference win over Plattsburgh. Haefele posted career-highs in goals (7) and points (11) and Wooters added three goals and five assists and became the Golden Flyers' all-time leader in goals scored as the Golden Flyers won in convincing fashion.
In the first-ever men's lacrosse meeting between the two schools, Nazareth was dominant from start to finish, leading 5-1 after one quarter, 10-2 at halftime and 16-5 after three quarters. Needing just two goals to break Nazareth's all-time record for career goals, Wooters scored three times in the third quarter to boost his career goal total to 144, two more than Marty Kelly amassed from 1989 through 1992. Haefele, meanwhile, did most of his damage early as he scored three times in the first quarter and two more times in the second.
Junior
Nick Arnold and sophomore
Paul Walter also scored twice each and senior goalie
Scott Brown made 14 saves in a solid opening effort between the pipes.
Haefele's first two goals each came off passes from Wooters, who also assisted on
Joe Eiskant's man-up goal late in the first quarter. Nazareth was successful on all three of its man-up chances in the first half with Arnold and junior
Hunter Burdick each scoring in the second quarter.
Nazareth continued to dominate play in the second half with Wooters' three goals accompanied by third-quarter tallies from Arnold, Haefele and senior
Matt O'Neill. Haefele added his seventh goal midway through the fourth quarter and freshman
Jack Crowley netted his first college goal with four minutes to play.
Austin Belz and Mike Gay each had a goal and an assist for Plattsburgh, which had clearing problems all day, evidenced by a 12-for-22 success rate. Haefele had seven ground balls and three caused turnovers, while short-stick defender
Luke Longo contributed four ground balls and two caused turnovers. Sophomore
Seth DeLisle took the majority of Nazareth's face-offs and went 13-for-25 with four ground balls.
Nazareth had advantages in shots (41-31) and ground balls (34-26) and went 17-for-20 on clears. The Golden Flyers, ranked 18th nationally by the United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association, is home again Saturday, Feb. 27 against Springfield at 12 p.m.