Three Mavericks Score Two Goals as No. 12 Men's Lacrosse Picks Up 9-6 Road Win Over No. 13 Molloy
Box Score ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Apr. 9, 2016) – Powered by two-goal days from junior Nick Wilcox (Hamburg, N.Y./Hamburg) and freshmen Bobby Chillianis (Bethpage, N.Y./Bethpage) and Ryan MacSpadyen (Toronto, Ontario/Seneca College), the No. 12 Mercy College men's lacrosse team earned an impressive 9-6 road win over No. 13 Molloy College in an ECC matchup on Saturday afternoon at John A. Darcy Field.
The Mavericks (9-2, 5-1 ECC) have now won five games in a row and the 5-1 start in ECC play is the best since the 2011 season. Mercy also defeats the Lions (7-4, 1-3 ECC) for the sixth straight year.
Wilcox also added an assist and two groundballs, while senior Kyle Stockton (Medford, N.Y./Patchogue-Medford) and junior Daniel Speicher (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) each contributed a goal and an assist. Senior Robert Rossi (North Massapequa, N.Y./Adelphi) recorded the Mavericks other goal with a team-high-tying three groundballs and freshman Luke Baron (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y./Cold Spring Harbor) finished with an assist. Senior Peter LoParo (Ridgewood, N.J./Ridgewood) and freshman Nick D'Amaro (Manorville, N.Y./Eastport-South-Manor) shared team high honors with Rossi in groundballs. Senior Joe Persico (North Massapequa, N.Y./Plainedge) led the Mercy defense with two caused turnovers. Senior A.J. Pellati (West Islip, N.Y./West Islip) made the start in net and played the entire first half with six saves. Sophomore Michael Schneider (West Babylon, N.Y./West Babylon) played the second half and made five saves to pick up the win and improve to 3-2 on the year.
Molloy was led by Kevin Teresky who had a game-high four goals, while Ryan Toomey made the start in net with ten saves in a losing effort.
Mercy wasted little time in showing that they were ready for the big road test against the Lions as Wilcox netted his first goal of the game less than two minutes in to give the Mavericks an early 1-0 lead. The score remained 1-0 until Teresky tallied his first of the game at the 5:21 mark to even up the score at 1-1.
Chillianis came up with an answer for Mercy just under two minutes later off a pass from Speicher to make it 2-1 in favor of the Mavericks with 3:23 left in the quarter. It looked like the period was going to end at 2-1, but MacSpadyen had other ideas as he scored his first of the game with ten seconds left to give Mercy a 3-1 lead after one quarter.
After an opening faceoff win and a Mavericks timeout to begin the second quarter, Wilcox recorded his second of the contest at the 14:13 mark to put Mercy up 4-1. Pellati then followed with four big saves to keep Molloy off the board before Chillianis picked up his second of the day with 8:31 remaining in the half to make it 5-1. The score remained 5-1 heading into halftime as Pellati stopped three shots to limit the Lions to just one goal in the half.
Mercy looked to have the game in hand with a four-goal lead, but Molloy showed it would not go down easily as they scored the first four goals of the third quarter in a span of just over three minutes to tie the game at 5-5 with 6:20 left in the quarter.
The Lions looked to have all the momentum on their side, but Schneider came up with a pair of saves to keep the score at 5-5. The quarter looked to be on the verge of ending with the teams tied at 5-5, but once against MacSpadyen scored a late goal in the quarter to give the Mavericks a 6-5 lead heading to the final stanza.
Nearly five minutes would go by in the final quarter before Rossi added an insurance goal for the Mavericks off an assist from Stockton to make it 7-5 with 10:45 left in the game. Teresky came back just over three minutes later with his final goal of the day to get the Lions back to within one, 7-6, with 7:24 left. However, Speicher and Stockton would put the game away with goals late in the quarter to seal the Mercy road win.
The Mavericks held a 36-31 edge in shots and a 21-20 advantage in groundballs on the day. Mercy went 10-of-19 on faceoffs and 14-of-18 on clear attempts.
Head Coach Jordan Levine and the Mavericks look to make it six in a row when they play at NYIT on Saturday, April 16th at 12 p.m.
