Syracuse, N.Y. – The No. 5 Harford men's lacrosse kicked off the month of March by grabbing the attention of the entire lacrosse world, defeating the defending NJCAA National Champions and current No.1 ranked Onondaga Lazers, 12-8, Saturday afternoon at Charles R. Wilbur Field.
Prior to Saturday, Onondaga had not lost a regular season game since 2016, when they fell 10-9 to Nassau on the road. The Lazers had not lost a regular season contest at home since 2008.
Tied 5-5 in the third, Harford would go on to score six of the games next seven goals to grab an 11-6 advantage with seven minutes left to play.
Eli Doyle and
Chandler Schmidt led the charge during this stretch, combing to score four of the six goals.
The Lazers pulled back within three towards the end of the fourth, but
Eli Doyle scored his third goal of the contest to help Harford see out this historic victory.
Harford moves to 1-1 on the season, while Onondaga fall to 1-1.
Harford Head Coach Aaron Verardi
"I am very proud of the team's effort and focus in what was an extremely competitive atmosphere from warm-ups until the final whistle. We were able to neutralize some of their more dangerous offensive players on our defensive end. They play very loose and have a ton of skill, so we had to be very attentive."
"The first half was slow for us offensively and we struggled to execute. We collected ourselves and played like a very mature offense in the second half."
"To win any big games, you need to play very well at the faceoff, at X, and between the pipes.
Moriah Yousefi consistently won possessions for us so we could always control the tempo.
Barret Casto made all of the saves he should have made, and a few that were absolutely terrific."
"We have a ton of respect for Onondaga and they played a great game. This was a huge win for us."
Game Notes
Up Next
Harford has the luxury of playing its next seven games at home, beginning with their home opener on Wednesday, March 6 at 4 p.m. against Delaware Tech.
