Box Score Box Score

ONEONTA, N.Y. – Senior Paul Cerone (Ridgefield, CT/Ridgefield) tallied two goals and added two assists to lead Rensselaer to an 8-6 non-conference win over SUNY Oneonta on Wednesday afternoon. With the victory, the Engineers extend their winning streak and remain unbeaten on the season with a 4-0 record. The Red Dragons are now 2-2 overall.

Additionally, Rensselaer head coach Jim Townsend recorded his 109th victory, tying the legendary Ned Harkness (109-26-2) as the program's all-time leader in wins.  In his 14-year career at Rensselaer, Townsend has posted a record of 109-73, and will become the all-time winningest coach in RPI men's lacrosse history with one more win.

SUNY Oneonta opened the game's scoring in the first quarter, but the visiting Engineers quickly grabbed momentum as they fired off three straight goals for a 3-1 lead after the first 15 minutes of play.

The advantage continued to swing in Rensselaer's favor in the second stanza as three more goals, including two from Cerone, made it a 6-1 lead for the Engineers. The Red Dragons cut the deficit with 2:50 remaining and were able to add another tally with six seconds left to make it 7-3 at halftime.

RPI senior Devin Arnold (Buffalo, NY/Canisius), who also scored in the first half, recorded his second man-up goal of the contest at 12:54 to make it an 8-3 lead, but kept pace as Scott Kellman tallied at 11:39.

In the final stanza, Oneonta State came on strong, scoring three straight goals to close the gap to two (8-6), but Engineers' goalie James Manchester (Niskayuna, NY/Niskayuna) held strong late in the game, finishing with 10 stops to improve to 4-0 on the season.

In addition to Cerone, who also had a game-best six ground balls, the Engineers saw Arnold score a pair of goals. Rookie David Hey (Chapel Hill, NC/Durham Academy) added a goal and an assist, while senior Bryant Johnson (Minnetonka, MN/The Blake School) and sophomores Tyler Hutchinson (New Hartford, NY/New Hartford) and Andrew Liptak (Westfield, MA/Westfield) each had a goal.

For SUNY Oneonta, Brian Kollar added two goals, while Kellman, Scott Weiner, Jim van de Veerdonk and Steve Loesch each recorded a goal. In net, Sean Reynolds shouldered the loss and made one save in the first half before giving way to Chris Miles, who made six stops in the final 30 minutes.

The Engineers are back in action on Saturday when they travel to Elmira for a non-conference match-up at 2pm. SUNY Oneonta is also in action on Saturday at St. John Fisher at 1pm.