DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Mar. 17, 2021) – Powered by a game-high four goals from junior Brady Kearnan (Courtice, Ontario/Newberry College) and graduate student Antonio Rey (Liverpool, N.Y./Liverpool) going 23-of-26 on face-offs with a game-high 13 ground balls, the No. 8 Mercy College men's lacrosse team earned a 16-7 win over Molloy College on Wednesday night.
The Mavericks (3-0) start 3-0 for the first time since 2019 and have won ten straight meetings against the Lions (1-4).
Kearnan added an assist and four ground balls. Rey set a new career high in ground balls and also scored a goal. Senior Dominic Scorcia (Franklin Square, N.Y./Carey) had two goals, three assists and four ground balls. Sophomore TJ Heyder (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y./Comsewogue) had three goals, one assist and two ground balls. Senior Marty Shargel (Agoura Hills, Calif./Onondaga CC) scored two goals and junior Jack Gibbons (North Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) had three assists. Freshman Damiano Ferrara (Hackettstown, N.J./Hackettstown) scored a goal and had five ground balls and graduate students Tommy McPartland (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) and Anthony DeVito (Rocky Point, N.Y./Rocky Point) and sophomore Matt Gaughan (Franklin Square, N.Y./Carey) also scored. Sophomore Robert Guglielmo (Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) dished out an assist and graduate student Bobby Norton (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) and junior Jake Fitzgerald (Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) had a team-high two caused turnovers. Junior Tommy Umano (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) made five saves in 57:55 minutes of action to earn the win.
Molloy was led by Chris Delaney who had a team-high three goals with one assist. Adam Hyman made 12 saves to take the loss.
The game was scoreless for four minutes until McPartland scored an unassisted goal to put the Mavericks up 1-0. Heyder made it 2-0 just 20 seconds later following an assist from Kearnan. Kearnan then got into the scoring column with back-to-back goals to put Mercy ahead, 4-0, with 3:44 left in the quarter. Scorcia scored his first goal of the game to make it 5-0 before Kearnan netted his third of the game at the 1:44 mark to give the Mavericks a 6-0 lead. Delaney scored a goal in the final minute for Molloy, but Mercy headed into the second quarter with a 6-1 lead.
Mercy scored two of the three goals in the second quarter with Scorcia and Gaughan finding the back of the net to put the Mavericks ahead 8-2 at halftime.
DeVito opened the scoring in the third quarter to up the Mavericks lead to 9-2. Molloy answered with two straight goals to get within, 9-4, with 10:44 left. However, Rey won the ensuing face-off and scored to make it 10-4 just 10 seconds later. Delaney later made it 10-5 before Ferrara netted his goal just 18 seconds later to give Mercy an 11-5 lead with 9:29 left in the third. A pair of goals from the Lions made it 11-7 before Heyder closed out the period with a man-up goal to send Mercy into the fourth quarter up, 12-7.
The Mavericks scored all four goals in the fourth quarter to pull away from Molloy. Shargel scored the first two goals of the run to make it 14-7. Kearnan and Heyder finished off the scoring to seal the win for Mercy.
Mercy held a 50-28 edge in shots, 48-28 edge in ground balls and went 24-of-27 on face-offs.
Head Coach Jordan Levine and the Mavericks resume action on Saturday, March 20th when they host Roberts Wesleyan at 3 p.m.
