In winning the 2011 North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) men's lacrosse championship, Keuka overcame a rough, 1-4 start to the season before finishing strong with wins in nine of its last 10 games.
The 2012 squad was looking at a similar proposition heading into the second quarter of Wednesday night's home opener versus Alfred University. The Storm found itself down 5-4 at the end of the first quarter and 7-6 after the first half and was in danger of falling to 1-3 on the season, but turned it on in the second half.
A stout Storm defense blanked Alfred for the third quarter and only allowed one second-half goal to win 10-8 at the Jephson Community Athletic Complex.
Senior Gino Marcello (Rochester, NY/Churchville-Chili) scored four goals with three assists, junior Chris Redington (Tully, NY/Tully) added three goals and freshman Eric Saltrelli (Webster, NY/Webster Schroeder) stopped six of seven shots for the win.
Freshman James Voigt (Penn Yan, NY/Penn Yan) added two and classmate Anthony Luppino (Penn Yan, NY/Penn Yan) chipped in with the eventual game-winner as Keuka improved to 2-2 while Alfred fell to 1-5.
The visiting Saxons stormed out to a 2-0 lead just two minutes and 20 seconds in before Redington scored a man-up goal off a feed from Marcello. Just 17 seconds later, Voigt's first goal tied the score at 2-all before Alfred reclaimed the lead six minutes into the opening quarter.
Once again, Marcello found a cutting Redington for a man-up goal to even the score at 3-all halfway through the first, and Marcello gave Keuka its first lead when he scored unassisted with 5:28 remaining in the quarter.
Alfred answered with back-to-back man-up goals to take a 5-4 lead heading into the second. The Saxons' lead grew to 6-4 on Matt Zon's even-strength goal five minutes into the second, but Marcello scored three times over the final nine minutes of the quarter to keep Keuka close, down 7-6. Freshman Scott Thielman (Amherst, NY/Amherst) played the first half in his first-career collegiate start and made one save.
The Storm defense clamped down and pestered Alfred's shooters in the third quarter, and Saltrelli was inserted in place of Thielman and made several point-blank saves, particularly in the third. Neither team scored over the first 8:35 of the quarter before Marcello's fourth and final goal knotted the score at 7-all with 6:25 remaining.
Luppino reclaimed the lead for the Storm on an even-strength goal and Redington added his third man-up goal of the game with 31 seconds remaining for a 9-7 lead heading into the final quarter.
Voigt scored off a feed from Marcello to push the lead to three before Caleb McCaig made it a two-goal game eight minutes into the quarter. But a persistent Keuka defense limited Alfred's chances as the Storm snapped a two-game losing streak.
Keuka returns to action with a 4 p.m. road game against SUNY Oswego on Tuesday before the NEAC opener against Morrisville State at 3:30 p.m. on March 31. Keuka edged the Mustangs 8-7 to win the 2011 NEAC championship.
McCaig and Brett Carroll each scored two goals while McCaig added two assists for the Saxons.