Syracuse, NY - The
Onondaga Lazers and Cayuga Spartans gave us the exhilarating No. 8 vs No. 9 matchup we all waited for last night on Charles R. Wilbur Field. Despite an adverse, uncharacteristic first half, the Lazers shut out the Spartans in the second half to come back from a 2-goal deficit and securing the 3-2 victory.
The contest began less than pleasing for the Lazers immediately from the get-go. The Spartans were able to manufacture a goal in the first 24 seconds of the game on an defensive mishap and catching every member in Lazer Stadium off-guard. This offbeat start for the Lazers set the tone for an even more offbeat first half. The Lazers had no trouble finding opportunities to score, keeping the ball on their offensive end for the majority of the half, but struggled to capitalize on these opportunities.
Struggling to score, and struggling to obtain a call in their favor, Onondaga was the only team carded in the half with fouls called on
Samuel Gregson,
Gursharndeep Singh, and
Ewan O'Dwyer-Hall. And despite a healthy amount of time in scoring position, Cayuga found their second goal on a deflection from Onondaga's
Thomas Johnson on a desperation attempt to keep Cayuga's lead small, and essentially scoring the second Spartan goal. After giving up two very quick, unfortunate goals, Head Coach, Mike Drake had the difficult task of lighting a fire under this Onondaga squad at halftime.
"We talked about the 3rd goal stat in soccer and how 66% of teams who score the 3rd goal win. And then we talked about the few moments in the match that did work, and how we needed to use our wide areas and get the ball away from their Center Backs who were controlling the game. And then finally, we talked about control, CCC wanted to control the tempo of the game keep it slow and disrupt our flow. So we needed to overcome their attempts to slow us down," said Head Coach, Mike Drake.
After a quiet 15 minute halftime in Lazer Stadium, the Lazers had the crowd on their side anticipating their No. 8-in-the-country-brilliance to shine through in this second half. With a noticeable change in Onondaga's energy, they continues to find scoring opportunities and were able to pick up their first goal in the 59th minute on an assist from
Faisal Samim finding the foot of
Jack Hopson putting Onondaga on the board. The Lazers, using this leverage, began to own scoring territory. The tying goal came ten minutes later on a corner kick, off the heads of Johnson and Hopson to find Onondaga's second leading scorer,
Tyler Wavercak. This huge momentum shift in Lazer stadium had the men unsatisfied with the tie score and drive to come out on top. With a possible game-saving save from Goalkeeper,
Jordan Williams with 20 minutes remaining, Gregson found net off the assist from Hopson to Wavercak in the 78th minute for their third consecutive goal, all in the second half.
Disparaging the Spartans, the nationally ranked matchup ended in a 3-2 victory for Onondaga and a great deal of energy approaching more nationally matchups in the second half of this season.
The Lazers will hit the road this weekend heading West and taking on Niagara Country Community College Saturday and Erie Community College on Sunday.
For the full game with play-by-play commentary, the game can be watched on demand on the Lazer Live Sports Network.
For the Latest news on the OCC men's Soccer program follow @occmsoc on Instagram. You can keep up with all OCC Athletics by following us on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook @OnondagaLazers.
