April 26, 2005

GENEVA, N.Y.—Nine different Hobart lacrosse players scored in a 12-6 rout of Canisius this afternoon at Boswell Field. First-year attackman Daryl Veltman (Salisbury School/Georgetown, Ontario) led the way with three goals and three assists, increasing his team-leading point total to 44 (25-19).

The Statesmen completely dominated possession in this game, outshooting their guests 62-28, picking up more ground balls (58-43), winning more faceoffs—sophomore midfielder John Soden (Delbarton/Chester, N.J.) won 13-of-21 for Hobart—and riding the Golden Griffins mercilessly. Canisius was successful on just 17-of-32 clear attempts.

Red-shirt junior midfielder Nate Molinari (Oswego/Oswego, N.Y.) opened the scoring 2:20 into the contest off a feed from Veltman. Molinari finished the day with a goal and an assist and a team-high eight ground balls.

The Statesmen (7-5) seemed out of sync to start the contest, perhaps since many arrived in the locker room only minutes before warm-ups were scheduled to begin. Today’s game marked the only midweek game for Hobart that began prior to 5 p.m. this season

Canisius (5-6) evened the contest at the 1:51 mark of the first when first-year midfielder Reed Patterson (Mariemont/Terrace Park, Ohio) scored an extra-man goal. He led Canisius with two goals, while sophomore attackman Kevin Ross (St. Michael’s/Toronto, Ontario) added a goal and two assists.

Hobart responded with the next four goals, spanning the first and second quarters. Sophomore midfielder James Dussich (Manhasset/Manhasset, N.Y.) capped the run at the 7:57 mark with his first collegiate goal.

The Golden Griffins managed just a single goal in the second frame, another man-up score at 7:22. The Statesmen closed out the half with three more goals for an 8-2 lead at the break.

Veltman netted back-to-back goals to start the second half to push Hobart’s advantage to eight, before the Griffins sandwiched a pair of man-up goals around a Statesmen tally to head into the fourth quarter facing an insurmountable 11-4 deficit. Only two Statesmen in the 103 seasons of Hobart lacrosse have scored more points as first-years than Veltman, Rick Gilbert ’74 (91 in 1971) and Bill Miller ’91 (78 in 1988).

Senior goalie Dan Valente (Mt. Hebron/Ellicott City, Md.) made 11 saves and did not allow an even-strength goal in his 45 minutes of work to earn the win, while sophomore Angus Dineley (St. Michael’s/Toronto, Ontario) and junior Tom Kucharczak (Hamburg/Hamburg, N.Y.) combined for 27 saves for Canisius.

The Statesmen will close out their first season in the ECAC Lacrosse League at Loyola at 1 p.m., on April 30, before playing a non-conference game at Cornell on May 6.