PAINESVILLE, Ohio (Mar. 9, 2019) – Powered by the game-winning goal in the fourth quarter from senior Ryan MacSpadyen (Toronto, Ontario/Seneca College), the No. 5 Mercy College men's lacrosse team earned an 8-7 victory over RV Lake Erie College on Saturday afternoon to improve to 7-0 for the first time in program history.
The Mavericks (7-0) win at Lake Erie (0-3) for the first time since 2011 and earn a win over the Storm for the first time since 2012.
MacSpadyen had a game-high four points on two goals and two assists and senior Bobby Chillianis (Bethpage, N.Y./Bethpage) had two goals, an assist and four ground balls. Freshman JoJo Janavey (Shrub Oak, N.Y./Lakeland) had two goals and freshman Jack Gibbons (North Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) added a goal and two assists. Junior Tommy McPartland (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) netted a goal and an assist and junior Joe Cortese (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Lakeland) had an assist. Junior Antonio Rey (Liverpool, N.Y./Liverpool) went 11-of-16 on faceoffs and senior Max Littleton (Mahopac, N.Y./Mahopac) had three caused turnovers. Senior Ryan Gibbons (Seaford, N.Y./Dowling College) made nine saves to post the win in net.
Lake Erie was led by Kyle Barna who had a team-high three points on a goal and two assists. Conor Sharkey played 36:59 minutes in goal with 12 saves to take the loss.
McPartland got the Mavericks on the board first with an unassisted goal at the 11:37 mark of the first quarter. The Storm answered back with three straight goals to take a 3-1 lead with 4:52 remaining in the quarter. Chillianis netted his first goal of the game off an assist from Cortese to make it 3-2 heading into the second quarter.
Gibbons tied the game up less than a minute into the second quarter following an assist from MacSpadyen. Lake Erie retook the lead at 4-3 on a John Kezerian goal at the 9:53 mark. Chillianis recorded his second goal of the day on the man-up to tie the game up at 4-4 heading into halftime.
The third quarter saw the Storm score the period's first two goals to take a 6-4 lead with 3:31 left in the period. Janavey tallied a man-up goal off an assist from Gibbons with 2:03 on the clock to make it 6-5. The Mavericks headed into the fourth quarter down, 6-5.
Janavey scored again at the 12:36 mark to tie the game up at 6-6. Nearly five minutes went by until MacSpadyen found the back of the net to give Mercy the lead at 7-6 with 7:37 remaining. It remained 7-6 for almost four minutes when MacSpadyen struck again following a pass from McPartland that gave Mercy an 8-6 lead with 3:43 left to play. Lake Erie recorded a man-up goal with 2:05 remaining to make it 8-7, but Gibbons came up with a late save to preserve the win for the Mavericks.
Mercy held a 45-26 edge in shots and a 25-23 edge in ground balls.
Head Coach Jordan Levine and the Mavericks resume action on Saturday, March 16th when they host Roberts Wesleyan at 11 a.m.
