Speicher and Rossi Help Lead No. 15 Men's Lacrosse to 14-2 Victory Over St. Thomas Aquinas
Box Score DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Mar. 29, 2016) – Powered by a career-high-tying six points from junior Daniel Speicher (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) and a game-high three goals from senior Robert Rossi (North Massapequa, N.Y./Adelphi), the No. 15 Mercy College men's lacrosse team earned a 14-2 victory over St. Thomas Aquinas College in a non-conference matchup on Tuesday afternoon at Mercy Field.
The Mavericks (6-2) have now won two games in a row, while the Spartans (0-7) remain winless in their first varsity season.
Speicher finished with two goals and four assists along with three groundballs, while Rossi added three goals, an assist and three groundballs. Freshman Ryan MacSpadyen (Toronto, Ontario/Seneca College) netted two goals and an assist and senior Kyle Stockton (Medford, N.Y./Patchogue-Medford) chipped in two goals. Junior Nick Wilcox (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) scored a goal and had two assists and senior Thomas Lackaye (Summit, N.J./Summit) put forth a goal and an assist.
Sophomore Kyle McDonough (Wall Township, N.J./Wall) chipped in a goal and an assist, while senior Connor McLachlan (Albany, N.Y./Guilderland) and freshman Bobby Chillianis (Bethpage, N.Y./Bethpage) rounded out nine Mavericks who scored. Chillianis and sophomore Ross Schnitzer (Scarsdale, N.Y./Loyola University Maryland) added a game-high-tying three caused turnovers. Senior A.J. Pellati (West Islip, N.Y./West Islip) made the start in net and went the entire first half with no goals allowed to pick up the win and improve to 5-0.
St. Thomas Aquinas received goals from Joseph Nyemchek and Luke Madry. Goalkeeper Ryan Mello made 12 saves in a losing effort.
Mercy came out on top of their game as Speicher netted his first of the game less than a minute in off a pass from Rossi to give the Mavericks an early 1-0 lead. Chillianis got into the scoring column just under four minutes later off a feed from MacSpadyen to give Mercy a 2-0 lead less than five minutes in.
MacSpadyen and Rossi both netted goals less than a minute apart, both coming off assists from Speicher, to give the Mavericks a 4-0 lead with 5:47 left in the opening quarter. Rossi and Stockton concluded the scoring in the first quarter to put Mercy up 6-0 after one quarter.
Six minutes would go by in the second quarter before Rossi netted a goal to increase the Mavericks lead to 7-0. The score would remain 7-0 as the two teams headed into halftime.
The third quarter saw Stockton put another on the board at the 13:04 mark to make it 8-0 before tallies from MacSpadyen and Speicher gave Mercy a comfortable 10-0 advantage with 5:53 remaining in the period. The Spartans broke the shutout with a goal at the five-minute mark and added another on a man-up opportunity to cut the deficit to 10-2 with 1:05 left in the period. Wilcox added his lone goal of the game with 32 seconds left in the third quarter to give the Mavericks an 11-2 lead after three quarters.
The final stanza saw McDonough, Lackaye and McLachlan each record goals to help put the game away for Mercy.
The Mavericks held a 44-14 edge in shots and a 44-18 advantage in groundballs. Mercy went 13-of-19 on faceoffs and went 15-of-17 on clear attempts.
Head Coach Jordan Levine and the Mavericks resume action on Saturday, April 2nd when they play at ECC foe Roberts Wesleyan College at 1 p.m.
