ONEONTA, NY – Led by a five-goal performance from senior Brian Gonsalves, the Skidmore College men's lacrosse team cruised past Oneonta for the wire-to-wire 16-9 road victory on Thursday afternoon.

The Thoroughbreds (2-0) started out hot by quickly building a 5-1 first quarter lead over the Red Dragons (0-1), before outscoring the home team by a 4-1 margin coming out of halftime to comfortably pull away for good in the second half.

With his first goal on the afternoon, Gonsalves hit a major career milestone by becoming just the ninth player in program history to eclipse the 100-career goal mark. His 104 career goals also currently stands tied for sixth all-time. 

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Senior Ryan Connolly got the scoring started for Skidmore with a goal at the 13:37 mark in the first quarter.
• After the Red Dragons momentarily tied things up, the Thoroughbreds responded with four unanswered goals to close out the period. Gonsalves scored twice during the stretch on top of scores from junior David Koffler and a man-up goal from freshman Mike Aiello.
• Skidmore pushed the scoring run to five straight early in the second quarter on a solo score from Aiello to put the Thoroughbreds up 6-1 with 11:00 left.
• Oneonta finally ended the run 90 seconds later, but was followed up by three-straight scores from Skidmore as sophomore Jon Byrne, Koffler and Aiello each found the back of the net to push the lead to 9-2 with 5:57 left.
• The Red Dragons closed out the half with three-straight goals, trimming Skidmore's advantage down to a more manageable 9-4 lead at intermission.
• After Oneonta came out halftime with another goal to cut the lead down to three goals, the Thoroughbreds responded with four unanswered goals—three-straight from Gonsalves followed by one final from junior Andrew Meindl—to take a commanding 13-6 lead into the fourth quarter.
• The final period saw Byrne, Aiello and Connolly each score one final time as Skidmore pulled away for the win.

STANDOUT THOROUGHBREDS

• Gonsalves scored the game-high gibrgoals to go with one assist two groundballs.
• Aiello finished with a stellar four goals scored in addition to an assist and picking up one groundball.
• Junior Jason Fastiggi led with six ground balls and finishing 9/23 on faceoffs.
• Lawson finished with four groundballs and two caused turnovers.
• Koffler scored two goals and an assist to go with three groundballs and two caused turnovers.
• Connolly and Byrne each finished with a pair of goals.
• Junior Marty McFadden recorded one assist, two groundballs and two caused turnovers.
• Sophomore Jack Holmes recorded four groundballs with a caused turnover.

UP NEXT
The Thoroughbreds will host the home opener next Wednesday by welcoming Trinity (Conn.) to Wachenheim Field for a 7 PM showdown.