CORTLAND, N.Y. - The nationally top-ranked Cortland men's lacrosse team opened up defense of its Division III national title with a convincing 12-2 win versus eighth-ranked Western New England College Saturday afternoon at a snowy and cold SUNY Cortland Stadium Complex. Senior Brian Krol (Niskayuna) and sophomore Christian Daly (Syracuse/Jamesville-DeWitt) led the Red Dragons (1-0) with three goals each, while freshman goalie Mike Kaminski (Sayville) stopped seven shots in his first collegiate game.

Senior Tom Burke (Massapequa) added two goals and an assist for Cortland, and junior Jay DiStefano (Huntington/Harborfields) scored twice. Junior Matt Evanchak (Syracuse/West Genesee) and sophomore Mike Tota (Webster/Webster Schroeder) tallied one goal apiece and four other players each collected one assist. Junior defenseman Justin Schneidman (Katonah/John Jay-Cross River) recorded five caused turnovers and four ground balls and junior Justin Battino (Plainview) won 10-of-14 faceoffs.

Junior Colin Houlihan (Yorktown Heights/Yorktown) and sophomore Andrew Mariani (East Brunswick, NJ) scored the Golden Bears' (0-1) goals, and sophomore Patrick White (Milton, MA/Catholic Memorial) chipped in with an assist. Sophomore goalie Brewster Knowlton (Somers, CT) made 15 saves before giving way to junior Brian Hanno (Lowville/Lowville Academy), who did not stop a shot over the final one minute, seven seconds.

The Red Dragons opened up a 3-0 lead after the first quarter on goals from Krol, Burke and DiStefano. Krol sandwiched two more scores around Daly's first goal in the second quarter and Cortland led 6-0 at intermission.

Burke and Daly pushed Cortland's lead to 8-0 with goals at 6:16 and 4:13, respectively, in the third quarter, and DiStefano added a man-down goal at 2:25 to make it a 9-0 game. Houlihan finally put the Golden Bears on the scoreboard with a man-up goal at 40 seconds, but the Red Dragons closed the quarter on Tota's goal with 17 seconds remaining. Mariani made it 10-2 at 11:10 of the fourthy quarter before Daly and Evanchak closed out the scoring at 10:08 and 1:07.

Cortland out shot Western New England, 39-23, in the game and won 11-of-17 faceoffs. 

FINAL SCORE: Cortland 12, WNEC 2

GAME SUMMARY:
Team                                  1     2    3    4        Final    
WNEC (0-1)                        0    0    1    1            2           
Cortland (1-0)                     3    3    4    2          12

Scoring (Goals-Assists):

WNEC: Andrew Mariani 1-0, Colin Houlihan 1-0, Patrick White 0-1
Cortland: Christian Daly 3-1, Brian Krol 3-0, Tom Burke 2-1, Jay DiStefano 2-0, Matt Evanchak 1-0, Mike Tota 1-0, Chris Dutkowsky 0-1, Brandon Misiaszek 0-1, Greg Wright 0-1, Jack Kennedy 0-1 

Goalkeepers:
WNEC: Brewster Knowlton, 15 saves (12 GA in 58:53), Brian Hanno, 0 saves (0 GA in 1:07)
Cortland: Mike Kaminski, 7 saves (2 GA in 60:00)

Shots: Cortland 39, WNEC 23 
Ground Balls: Cortland 38, WNEC 24
Clears: Cortland 22-of-29, WNEC 23-of-32 
Faceoffs Won: Cortland 11, WNEC 6 
Penalties: WNEC 6-5:00, Cortland 6-4:30
Extra-Man Offense: WNEC 1-6, Cortland 1-5