No. 3 Men’s Lacrosse Team Just One Win Away from Final Four

The Genesee Community College and Onondaga Community College Men's Lacrosse programs are headed back the NJCAA National Championship tournament as Region III Champions for a second-straight year.  Both teams used strong first-half performances to take control in their championship matchup to earn their berth to the national tournament.

While OCC will earn a first-round bye along with Nassau Community College as the top two seeds, Genesee will play Ocean County College in Batavia, May 5 at 12 p.m. The Cougars will live-stream the game from their home facility and it can be viewed at: https://bit.ly/2z392SI

Genesee 's men's lacrosse team entered the tournament as the third-ranked team in the NJCAA after a 10-2 regular-season campaign.  The Cougars' two regular season losses came at the hands of top-ranked OCC and second-ranked Nassau Community College from Region XV.  The Cougars took on third seeded Monroe Community College, who advanced to the championship with a 9-5 win over sixth-seeded Mercyhurst University - North East.  GCC used a strong first half to build a comfortable 14-1 halftime lead over MCC en route to a 22-6 win.  Evan Hollfelder and Samuel Koczwara led GCC each scoring four four goals, while goalie Garrett Lazore was solid defensively.

OCC entered the tournament as the top seed after a perfect 13-0 regular season, 9-0 in Region III.  The Lazers have been the nation's top ranked team all season and it showed in their 35-2 championship victory over fourth seeded Tompkins Cortland Community College.  The Panthers advanced to the Region III Championship with an 11-8 win over Hudson Valley Community College in the semifinals on Wednesday.  Onondaga dominated the first half with 13 first quarter goals and 14 second quarter tallies to take a 27-0 lead after the first 30 minutes of action. Starting attack, Russ Oakes led the Lazers in the opening period with four goals, while five different Lazers found the back of the net at least twice in the second quarter. Sophomore goalie, Frank Delia, kept the Panthers off the scoreboard in the first 30 minutes as he recorded six saves.

The full Region III tournament bracket and All-Tournament team can be found on the Region III Men's Lacrosse Championship Page at: http://www.njcaaregion3.org/sports/mlax/2017-18/championships

The NJCAA National Championship is a six team tournament in which the top two seeded receive byes into the semifinal round. The third seed hosts the sixth seed while the fourth seed hosts the fifth seed in opening round matchups on Saturday, May 5th.  The national semifinals are scheduled forSaturday, May 12th with the championship set for Sunday, May 13th at Onondaga Community College.

National Tournament information and results can be found on the NJCAA Men's Lacrosse National Championship Page at: http://njcaa.org/sports/mlax/2017-18/national_championship/index