Defending Liberty League Tournament champion, the Clarkson University Lacrosse team opened the 2005 conference campaign in impressive fashion on Saturday afternoon with a dominating 8-1 victory at Vassar College.
Freshman attackman Jon Cathcart (Homer, NY) finished as the game's leading scorer, with four goals. Senior Rich Burritt (Oswego, NY) added two goals and sophomore Mike McKenna (Camden, DE) finished with three assists to highlight the Golden Knights’ offense.
Clarkson out shot the Brewers 50-12. Senior goaltender Joe Zebrowski (Liverpool, NY) stopped five of six Vassar shots through 56 minutes of play, while freshman Greg Lamb (Baldwinsville, NY) posted one save over the final four minutes. Vassar’s Will Widen made 33 saves to keep the Knights in single digits.
Clarkson (4-4) opened scoring at 4:55 of the first quarter when Cathcart took a lead pass from McKenna. Cathcart and McKenna would team up again with 4:24 remaining in the second quarter. Leading 2-0, McKenna picked up a groundball and lofted a pass to Cathcart. The freshman then blistered in a shot from the right side for a three-goal lead. Clarkson would score again - less than a minute later - by sophomore midfielder Bryan Jackson (Northport, NY) and headed into the half leading 4-0.
The Brewers (0-5, 0-3) scored their lone goal, a man-up marker, four minutes into the third quarter, but the Green and Gold answered back with four more scores over the final 15 minutes to wrap up the road win. Freshman Steve Kennedy (Niskayuna, NY) rounded out the Clarkson goal scorers.
Winners of three of its last four, Clarkson continues Liberty League play with a game at Hamilton College on Wednesday afternoon at 5:00 p.m.
