No. 9/10 Men's Lacrosse Clinches Program's First ECC Playoff Berth With Convincing Victory Over Dominican
Box Score HILLBURN, N.Y. (Apr. 19, 2015) – Led by ten different Mavericks recording a goal, the No. 9/10 Mercy College men's lacrosse team clinched the program's first-ever ECC playoff berth with a convincing 17-4 victory over Dominican College on Sunday night at the Torne Valley Complex.
The Mavericks (10-3, 5-2 ECC) secure the No. 3 seed and will play at No. 2 seed NYIT in the semifinals on Wednesday, April 29th at a time to be announced. The Chargers (1-10, 0-6 ECC) remain winless in conference play and have dropped six in a row overall.
Leading the way in the scoring column for Mercy was sophomore Daniel Speicher (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) who had a game-high four goals to go along with two assists, while junior Connor McLachlan (Albany, N.Y./Guilderland) added three goals with two caused turnovers. Junior Robert Rossi (North Massapequa, N.Y./Adelphi) tallied two goals and three assists and senior Jesse Wood (Binghamton, N.Y./Seton Catholic Central) ended up with two goals and an assist.
Also, scoring for the Mavericks was sophomores Richie Morris (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale), Nick Wilcox (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) and Nathan Korutz (Johnson City, N.Y./Johnson City), juniors Justin Rohr (Bethpage, N.Y./Bethpage) and Kyle Stockton (Medford, N.Y./Patchogue-Medford) and senior Stephen Dunne (Melville, N.Y./Half Hollow Hills East). Freshman Michael Schneider (West Babylon, N.Y./West Babylon) made five saves in 30 minutes of action to earn the win and improve to 8-2 in net.
Despite the Chargers celebrating Senior Night, Mercy realized what was at stake for the program and would not be denied as they scored less than a minute and a half in on a McLachlan goal to take an early 1-0 lead.
The Mavericks continued to click on all cylinders as they scored the first six goals of the contest with five coming in the first quarter. Rossi led the way early on with back-to-back goals to make it 3-0 before Wood and Morris rounded out the scoring in the first quarter to make it 5-0.
Speicher opened up the scoring in the second quarter with an unassisted goal at the 13:35 mark to make it 6-0. Dominican ended the shutout with a goal just under a minute later to make it 6-1, but that would be the closest they got as the Mavericks ended the half scoring five of the next six goals to head into the break with a comfortable 11-2 lead. Speicher ended up tallying four goals in the frame, while Stockton and Rohr netted the other two.
Mercy continued to dominate in the second half as they built the lead up to 16-2 with 11:16 left in the fourth on Dunne's goal before the Chargers concluded the game by scoring two of the last three goals.
The Mavericks held a 50-30 edge in shots and 39-27 advantage in ground balls. Mercy also went 3-for-7 on man-up opportunities and won 16-of-24 faceoffs.
Head Coach Jordan Levine and the Mavericks resume play on Tuesday, April 21st with a non-conference matchup at St. Michael's beginning at 3:30 pm.
