SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (Feb. 11, 2020) – Powered by nine different Mavericks scoring, the No. 10 Mercy College men's lacrosse team opened its 2020 season with a convincing 19-3 victory over American International College on Tuesday afternoon at Abdow Field.
The Mavericks (1-0) improve to 9-0 all-time against the Yellow Jackets (0-1) and win their season opener for the second straight year.
Leading the Mavericks was junior Dominic Scorcia (Franklin Square, N.Y./Carey) who had a game-high six points on three goals and three assists. Sophomore Jack Gibbons (North Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) added three goals and two assists and sophomore Brady Kearnan (Courtice, Ontario/Newberry College) contributed one goal and a game-high four assists in his Mercy debut. Junior Robert LoRicco (Guilford, Conn./University at Albany) netted a career-high three goals and one assist and freshmen TJ Heyder (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y./Comsewogue) and Robert Guglielmo (Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) both recorded two goals and two assists in their debuts. Junior Marty Shargel (Agoura Hills, Calif./Onondaga CC) had three goals in his debut and sophomore Joseph Guglielmo (Coral Springs, Fla./St. Thomas Aquinas) and senior Ricky Marchelos (New Hyde Park, N.Y./Herricks) also scored. Senior Tommy McPartland (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) dished out an assist and senior Antonio Rey (Liverpool, N.Y./Liverpool) went 15-for-16 on faceoffs with a career-high ten ground balls. Senior Kyle Gardner (Miller Place, N.Y./Rocky Point) added a game-high three caused turnovers. Sophomore Thomas Umano (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) played the first half in goal and made two saves to earn the win. Sophomore Joe Tortorella (Franklin Square, N.Y./Carey) made five saves in the second half to preserve the win.
AIC was led by Avery Foye who had a team-high two goals. Eddie Beattie made 13 saves to take the loss.
Beattie made four saves in the first six minutes of play to keep the Mavericks off the scoreboard. Shargel scored his first goal as a Maverick, off an assist from Kearnan, to put the Mavericks ahead 1-0 with 8:23 left in the first quarter. It remained 1-0 until the 7:01 mark when Heyder dished out a pass to Gibbons who finished on a man-up situation to give Mercy a 2-0 lead. LoRicco tallied the final goal of the period following an assist from Robert Guglielmo to give the Mavericks a 3-0 advantage after one quarter.
Mercy took control of the game in the second quarter, scoring 11 goals in the frame to head into halftime up, 14-1. Gibbons scored the first goal of the period after an AIC goal to make it 4-1. Kearnan then recorded his first goal as a Maverick before back-to-back goals from LoRicco made it 7-1 with 8:03 left before halftime. Heyder found the back of the net for his first collegiate goal to increase the lead to 8-1 before Scorcia netted his first of the day to bring the score to 9-1. Heyder scored again and Robert Guglielmo notched his first career goal to put Mercy up 11-1 with five minutes left in the quarter. Scorcia then produced two straight goals to give Mercy a 13-1 lead before Joseph Guglielmo scored the final goal of the half to give the Mavericks a commanding lead at halftime.
Gibbons started the scoring less than a minute into the third quarter to make it 15-1 and Shargel scored two more goals to put Mercy up, 17-1, after three quarters.
Robert Guglielmo and Marchelos scored in the fourth quarter to finish off the scoring in an impressive season-opening win.
Mercy held a 49-18 edge in shots, a 34-16 advantage in ground balls and went 21-for-23 on faceoffs. Mercy also went 20-for-23 on clear attempts and went 3-for-5 on the man-up.
Head Coach Jordan Levine and the Mavericks resume action on Saturday, February 15th when they host Georgian Court at 1 p.m.
