NEWARK, Del. (Feb. 26, 2022) – Powered by three Mavericks recording multiple points, the No. 3/5 Mercy College men's lacrosse team earned an 8-7 win over RV Wilmington University on Saturday afternoon at WU Athletics Complex.
The Mavericks (3-0) start 3-0 for the second straight season, while the Wildcats (1-1) drop their first game of the season.
Graduate student Dominic Scorcia (Franklin Square, N.Y./Carey) led the way for Mercy with a team-high four points on a team-high three goals with one assist. Sophomore Andrew Calabria (Sachem, N.Y./Sachem North) and senior Jack Gibbons (North Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) both had two goals and an assist. Graduate student Matt Eccles (Syracuse, N.Y./University at Albany) also scored and senior Brady Kearnan (Courtice, Ontario/Newberry College) dished out an assist. Junior PJ Argiros (Levittown, N.Y./Nassau CC) had a game-high nine ground balls and went 11-of-16 on face-offs. Sophomore Tyler Pjatak (Shelton, Conn./Shelton) had a game-high three caused turnovers and senior Jack Kipnes (Wantagh, N.Y./MacArthur) and junior Justin Gerdvil (Northport, N.Y./Northport) each had two caused turnovers. Senior Tommy Umano (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) made 11 saves to earn the win.
Wilmington was led by Miles Crouse who had a game-high five points on a game-high four goals with one assist. Jason Roland made 14 saves to take the loss.
The game remained scoreless until the 7:43 mark of the first quarter when TJ Caton scored for the Wildcats to make it 1-0. Scorcia tied the game at 1-1 with 2:26 on the clock after an assist from Gibbons. The score remained 1-1 heading into the second quarter.
Gibbons gave the Mavericks their first lead of the game when he netted his first goal of the game at the 9:59 mark of the second quarter to make it 2-1. Wilmington scored the final two goals of the quarter to head into halftime with a 3-2 lead.
Scorcia evened the score at 3-3 on a man-up goal from Kearnan just nine seconds into the third quarter. Calabria gave Mercy the lead back with his first goal of the day at the 9:01 mark. Scorcia tacked on another goal following an assist from Calabria to give the Mavericks a 5-3 lead with 7:31 left in the quarter. Calabria and Gibbons each added a goal to close out the quarter, giving Mercy a 7-3 lead after three quarters.
Giovanni Marino scored the first goal of the fourth quarter for the Wildcats to make it 7-4 with 10:45 remaining. Eccles recorded a man-up goal from Scorcia with 8:20 on the clock to put Mercy up, 8-4. Umano made two saves before Crouse found the back of the net with 2:39 left to make it 8-5. Wilmington added two more goals less than a minute apart to cut Mercy's lead to just one, 8-7, with 37 seconds left.
Mercy won the ensuing faceoff but Wilmington's John Greene caused a turnover to give the Wildcats possession of the ball. With seconds ticking down, Kipnes stepped up and caused a Keeshawn Bell turnover and senior Sean Rigley (Pleasant Hill, Calif./Onondaga CC) picked up the ensuing ground ball to give the Mavericks the win.
Mercy held a 42-34 edge in shots, a 32-26 edge in ground balls and went 12-of-18 on faceoffs.
Head Coach Jordan Levine and the Mavericks resume action on Saturday, March 5th when they host No. 1 Le Moyne at 2 p.m.
