DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Mar. 7, 2020) – Powered by 14 saves from sophomore Thomas Umano (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford), the No. 8 Mercy College men's lacrosse team earned a 9-6 victory over No. 7 Pace University on Saturday afternoon at Mercy Field.
The Mavericks (4-1) have won two games in a row, while the Setters (1-1) drop their first game of the year.
Umano made 14 saves and allowed just six goals to earn the win. Sophomore Jack Gibbons (North Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) had a game-high three goals and freshman TJ Heyder (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y./Comsewogue) had a game-high four points with a goal and three assists. Sophomore Brady Kearnan (Courtice, Ontario/Newberry College) had two goals and an assist and senior Tommy McPartland (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) and juniors Marty Shargel (Agoura Hills, Calif./Onondaga CC) and Dominic Scorcia (Franklin Square, N.Y./Carey) also scored. Freshman Robert Guglielmo (Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) had an assist and junior Sean Rigley (Pleasant Hill, Calif./Onondaga CC) had a game-high six ground balls with two caused turnovers. Senior Antonio Rey (Liverpool, N.Y./Liverpool) went 9-for-18 on faceoffs and had five ground balls. He now has a school-record 193 career ground balls surpassing the previous mark of 190 set by Kevin Glueckert in 2015.
Pace was led by Anthony Caputo who had two goals. Louis Ragusa made a game-high 18 saves to take the loss.
Mercy opened the scoring just over a minute in when Gibbons found the back of the net to make it 1-0. Pace closed the quarter out with two goals to take a 2-1 lead after one quarter of play.
The Setters scored the first two goals of the second quarter to build a 4-1 lead with 7:58 left in the half. Mercy continued to battle and ensued with three straight goals to tie the game up at 4-4 with 2:16 on the clock. Heyder got the run started and Shargel and McPartland added goals to tie the game up. It remained 4-4 heading into halftime with Umano making seven saves in the first half.
Kearnan gave the lead back to Mercy with his first of the day at the 12:48 mark of the third quarter to make it 5-4. Caputo answered at the 11:06 mark to make it 5-5. Mercy would end the quarter with three straight goals to take an 8-5 lead after three quarters of play. Kearnan broke the tie with his second of the day and Gibbons and Scorcia finished off the scoring in the period.
The scored remained 8-5 heading into the final five minutes of the game when Joseph Diggle scored for the Setters at the 3:35 mark to cut the Mercy lead to just two, 8-6. After Pace won the ensuing faceoff, Umano made a key save to keep the Mercy lead at two with just over three minutes left. Gibbons put the finishing touches on the win with a man-up goal with 1:07 left to seal the game for Mercy.
Mercy held a 45-38 edge in shots and a 34-23 edge in ground balls.
Head Coach Jordan Levine and the Mavericks resume action on Tuesday, March 10th when they host Bentley at 12 p.m.
