CORTLAND, N.Y. – The No. 2 nationally second-ranked SUNY Cortland men's lacrosse team held Eastern Connecticut State University scoreless in the second half to earn a 12-4 victory in non-conference action Saturday afternoon at the Stadium Complex.

At right: Travis Tiger led all players with seven ground balls

Cortland (5-1) was coming off Thursday's 18-11 loss at the Carrier Dome to 2013 national champion RIT in a re-match of last year's national title game. Eastern (2-3) has dropped three straight to regionally or nationally-ranked teams since opening with a pair of victories.

In the first meeting between the programs in ten years, sophomore Zach Hopps paced the Cortland offense with four goals and one assist as the perennial national contending Red Dragons remained unbeaten (3-0) in the all-time series.

Junior attack Chris Barnett (Wilton) made his second career start on the first line with senior Mike Jordan (Cheshire) and first-year sophomore transfer Tim Reilly (Hanover, MA), but the trio managed only one goal (Jordan) and one assist (Reilly).

Senior midfielder Mike Devine (Cheshire) led Eastern with a pair of goals. Senior midfielder Tyler Fresen (Newington) contributed one goal and one assist, and junior midfielder Zach Thresher (Somers) one assist.

Making his fifth start in goal, sophomore Blake Smaldone (Hamilton, MA) made five saves in the first half. Sophomore Brendan Gillotti (Danbury) played the final 30 minutes, stopping three shots.

Junior defenseman Travis Tiger (Ridgefield) collected a game-high seven ground balls and added two caused turnovers, junior midfielder Dan Vasquez (Newington) recorded five ground balls and sophomore midfielder Tyler Vallie (Orange) was 9-of-19 on faceoffs and registered four ground balls.

Averaging 13.5 penalties through four matches, Eastern was whistled for only three against Cortland, but the Red Dragons made the Warriors pay each time with extra-man strikes late in the first half that pushed their lead to 7-3, another early in the third quarter that made it 8-4 and a final one midway through the final stanza that upped their advantage to seven goals.

Senior Cody Consul – the team's lone returning first, second or third team All-America among last year's four -- and junior Matt Rakozy each contributed two goals and one assist. Junior Mike Cantelli had one goal and two assists, senior Nate Garbarino chipped in one goal and one assist and juniors Patrick Brown

and Benjamin Dunlavey one goal.

Junior goalie Scott Tota made 11 saves, including eight in the second half before giving way to senior Nick Costabile in the final minutes.

Sophomore Conner Johnston won nine of 12 faceoffs and collected a team-high six ground balls.  

Cortland opened up a 5-3 lead after the first quarter as Hopps had two goals and an assist and Rakoczy picked up one goal and one assist for the Red Dragons, while Devine, Jordan and Fresen each scored for the Warriors. Cortland bumped its lead to 7-4 at the half as Consul scored at 7:34 of the second quarter and Hopps netted a man-up goal at 3:32 before Devine tallied his second of the game at the 1:26 mark.

The Red Dragons took control of the game by outscoring Eastern 3-0 in the third quarter for a 10-4 lead. Garbarino assisted Dunlavey's score at 12:46, then netted his goal at 4:05 and Brown closed the quarter with a goal at 2:17. Rakoczy made it an 11-4 game with a man-up goal at 8:30 of the fourth quarter before Hopps finished the scoring at 7:34 for the final of 12-4.

Eastern hosts Wheaton College (MA) Tuesday at 4 p.m.