LEWISTON, Maine – The Plattsburgh State men's lacrosse team saw its season come to a close on Wednesday afternoon at Garcelon Field, falling, 23-10, to No. 3 Bates College in the second round of the NCAA Division III Tournament.
Plattsburgh State, which made its first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance in 2017, finishes its season at 12-6 overall, while Bates rises to 15-1 with the win. The Bobcats advances to the third round and will take on No. 11 Amherst College on Saturday, May 13. Both Plattsburgh State and Bates earned a bye through the first round.
Senior attackman Ryan Callahan (Miller Place, N.Y./Miller Place) registered his 100th career point as a Cardinal with a man-up goal late in the second quarter, and he finished the game with 103 career points at Plattsburgh State after a five-point outing (one goal and four assists). His four assists during the contest also served as a career-high. For his career, which includes his freshman season at NCAA Division II Belmont Abbey College, he tallied 117 points.
Junior attackman Ryan Hubbard (Aquebogue, N.Y./Riverhead) scored four goals, while senior midfielder Austin Belz (Bayport, N.Y./Bayport-Blue Point) recorded two goals and one assist. Sophomore attackman Jake Carroll (East Northport, N.Y./Northport) and junior face-off specialist Joe Eiseman (Farmingville, N.Y./Sachem East) each finished with two points, with Carroll scoring twice and Eiseman notching a goal and an assist. Senior defensive midfielder Collin Cunningham (Ballston Spa, N.Y./Ballston Spa) collected a team-high three ground balls.
For Bates, senior midfielder Charlie Fay paced the attack with seven points on four goals and three assists, while junior attackman Clarke Jones scored five times. Freshman attackman Matt Chlastawa chalked up three goals and two assists, while senior attackman Andrew Melvin posted four points on two goals and two assists. Senior midfielder Kyle Weber (three goals) and senior midfielder Jake Walsh (one goal and two assists) each finished with three points, while sophomore midfielder Dahnique Brown-Jones (one goal), senior midfielder Wes Shrewsbury, sophomore midfielder Burke Smith, sophomore midfielder Andrew Small and freshman attackman Brendan Mullally all scored. Freshman midfielder Sean Clark, sophomore midfielder Eli Cooper and freshman defenseman Frank Spitz were each credited with an assist. Freshman midfielder Sam Francis paced the Bobcats at the X by going 18-for-26 on face-offs.
Bates outshot Plattsburgh State, 68-30, and outgained the Cardinals, 35-21, in ground balls. The Bobcats went 24-for-36 on face-offs, while both teams played well in transition, with Plattsburgh State going 14-for-16 on clears and Bates going 17-for-20. Bates went 4-for-8 on extra-man opportunities, while Plattsburgh State went 3-for-6.
The Bobcats hopped out to an early lead 42 seconds into the game, while Hubbard cashed in on an Eiseman feed just six seconds later. Plattsburgh State took its first—and only—lead of the game 13 seconds following Hubbard's marker, as Eiseman won the ensuing face-off, took the ball straight to goal and scored. Melvin connected with Jones and Fay scored unassisted to hand Bates a 3-2 advantage, while Belz tied the game at 3-all on a pass from Callahan.
The Bobcats closed the first quarter with three straight goals. Fay found Jones for a tally midway through the period, while Spitz connected with Brown-Jones for a score with 2:11 left in the stanza. Weber found the twine on a Melvin pass with 17 seconds left to hand Bates a 6-3 cushion through 15 minutes of play.
Shrewsbury and Fay each scored in the first 2:16 of the second quarter to extend the Bates advantage, while Jones buried a man-up goal on a Fay helper to give the Bobcats a 9-3 lead. Hubbard broke up a string of six straight Bates goals with a marker midway through the second quarter, while Melvin countered less than two minutes later. Belz fed Callahan for a man-up goal with 2:51 left in the period, while Hubbard cut the gap to 10-6 with a goal just 36 seconds before halftime. Plattsburgh State stopped a Bates scoring chance with 10 seconds left, and following a quick clear, Callahan just missed, firing a shot off the crossbar.
Weber and Melvin kicked off the third quarter with a pair of goals to pad the Bobcat lead, while the Callahan-to-Carroll connection worked for Plattsburgh State two times in a span of 19 seconds, with the second one coming on a man-up opportunity, to pull the Cardinals back within four, but Bates put the game on ice with a seven-goal spurt that spanned the third and fourth quarters. Chlastawa dished an assist to Jones for a goal to start the surge before Fay tallied unassisted 1:43 later. Weber and Chlastawa each posted man-up goals, which were assisted by Fay and Walsh, respectively, to close out the third quarter.
The run continued in the fourth with a Walsh goal, while Chlastawa connected with Smith 29 seconds later before Small ended the run with a goal that handed Bates a 19-8 lead. Hubbard posted his fourth goal of the game midway through the quarter, while Chlastawa countered 12 seconds later on a Cooper pass. Chlastawa netted yet another marker on a man-up try with 5:45 left in the period—which was assisted by Walsh—while Callahan connected with Belz for a man-up tally less than a minute later. Fay and Mullally closed out scoring for Bates, with Clark earning an assist on Mullally's goal.
Junior goalie Austin Graham (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Yorktown) posted 10 saves in the loss for the Cardinals in 45 minutes of action, while freshman goalie Rob Strain made 11 stops in the victory for the Bobcats.
The Cardinals qualified for the NCAA Tournament by means of the automatic bid out of the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC). They won their first-ever SUNYAC title in 2017, defeating SUNY Cortland, 10-6, in the SUNYAC championship game. It not only ended Cortland's nine-year run as SUNYAC champions, but it also marked Plattsburgh State's first-ever win over the Red Dragons.
