For Immediate Release February 27, 1999
Maroons Drop Season-Opener To Oneonta State, 17-5
Kamerdin Nets Two Goals and Has an Assist in Loss
SALEM, Va.--The Roanoke College men’s lacrosse team lost its season-opener today, 17-5, to the Red Dragons of Oneonta State (NY) at Alumni Field in Salem, VA. The Maroons, ranked eighth in the nation in preseason polls, lost the first game of the season for the second year in a row, something that hadn’t happen since the 1990 and 1991 seasons. The Red Dragons, who entered the game ranked 16th in the country, get their season off to a 1-0 start. Roanoke took control of the game in the first four minutes, jumping out to a 2-0 lead, but things quickly went downhill for the Maroons. The Red Dragons scored the game’s next 11 goals, including one as time expired in the first quarter. With just three seconds left in the opening quarter, the Red Dragons called a timeout and set up a play that sent a pass from their own end into the Maroons’ end of the pitch. OSU’s Matt Puerta, who scored six times in the contest, caught the ball just in front of the RC net and sent the ball to the back of the net just as the final second of the period clicked away. Four of Oneonta’s six goals in the first frame came with less than 5:30 left on the game clock.
The second period went much as the first did, with the Maroons being outscored 5-0 and by the time the intermission buzzer went off, the Maroons saw themselves trailing by nine goals, 11-2. The Maroons struck with just under a minute elapsed in the third quarter on Gregg Fasanaro’s (Stony Brook, NY/Ward Melville) first of the 1999 season, but again the Red Dragons countered with a scoring run, this time a 5-0 run. Roanoke got two fourth period goals from Ryan Kamerdin (South Salem, NY/John Jay) to finish the contest with just five goals.
Bobby Vallario (Bridgewater, NJ/Bridgewater) put the Maroons up 1-0 in the first period on an extra-man goal after a Red Dragon was sent off for an illegal procedure penalty. Kamerdin carried the ball from behind the cage and sent a pass to Vallario, who was standing 10 yards out in front of the goal. Vallario collected the pass and fired the ball past the OSU goalkeeper. David Taylor (Butler, MD/St. Paul’s School) gave RC a two-goal cushion two minutes later, but Roanoke was held off the scoreboard for the next 27:23 in the contest, a span in which the Red Dragons snatched control of the contest.
Brandon DeVoe (Cohasset, NY/Cohasset) and Evan Kaplow (Chappaqua, NY/Horace Greeley) combined to make 17 saves in the nets for Roanoke, as the team was outshot, 44-33, on the day. In the first half, DeVoe made eight stops, while Kaplow turned aside nine in the second half of play.
The 17 goals the Red Dragons scored were the most by an RC opponent since a 17-8 loss to Salisbury State in the 1996 NCAA tournament, and were the most on an opening day since a 20-7 loss to Duke in 1991.
Roanoke returns to action on March 6th, when the Bullets of Gettysburg College travel to Salem. Gettysburg was Roanoke’s opening day opponent last year, and beat the Maroons, 10-9 in triple-overtime. The Bullets are ranked 5th in the country in preseason polls.