WALTHAM, Mass. (Mar. 12, 2022) – Powered by a game-high 13 saves from senior Tommy Umano (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) and a team-high five points from graduate student Dominic Scorcia (Franklin Square, N.Y./Carey), the No. 6 Mercy College men's lacrosse team earned a 15-9 win over No. 17 Bentley University on Saturday afternoon at Bentley Field.
The Mavericks (4-1) bounce back from their first loss of the season and improve to 2-0 all-time against the Falcons (2-1).
Umano added one ground ball to earn his fourth win of the season. Scorcia had three goals and two assists and graduate student Matt Eccles (Syracuse, N.Y./University at Albany) had two goals and an assist and sophomore Brody Caskenette (Owen Sound, Ontario/Owen Sound District Secondary School) had a career-high three goals. Senior Brady Kearnan (Courtice, Ontario/Newberry College) had three goals and one assist and junior TJ Heyder (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y/Comsewogue) had two goals and an assist. Senior Jack Gibbons (North Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) scored two goals. Junior Robert Guglielmo (Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) dished out a game-high three assists and sophomore Andrew Calabria (Sachem, N.Y./Sachem North) also had an assist. Junior PJ Argiros (Levittown, N.Y./Nassau CC) went 12-of-24 on faceoffs with a game-high eight ground balls and one assist. Senior Jack Kipnes (Wantagh, N.Y./MacArthur) had a game-high three caused turnovers with six ground balls.
Bentley was led by Ben Baldasaro who had a game-high five points on four goals and one assist. Keaton Roarick made 10 saves to take the loss.
The game remained scoreless for nearly four minutes before Mercy rattled off four goals in a span of just over three minutes to take a 4-0 lead with 8:22 left in the opening quarter. Kearnan got the scoring started with his first goal of the day at the 11:32 mark. Gibbons followed just over a minute later with his first goal to make it 2-0. Kearnan later made it 3-0 and the senior assisted on Heyder's first goal of the day to give the Mavericks a four-goal lead, forcing a Bentley timeout. Scorcia increased the Mercy lead to 5-0 with 5:57 on the clock after an assist from Guglielmo. Baldasaro scored the Falcons first goal of the game with 1:19 left in the quarter and headed into the second quarter down, 5-1.
Baldasaro opened the scoring in the second quarter to cut Mercy's lead to 5-2 with 12:12 left in the half. Caskenette added back-to-back man-up goals less than 30 seconds apart to put the Mavericks up 7-2 with 8:58 on the clock. Bentley recorded the next two goals to make it 7-4 with 3:56 remaining in the quarter. Scorcia found the back of the net less than 45 seconds later, off another assist from Guglielmo, to put Mercy up 8-4. The Falcons answered with back-to-back goals to get within two, 8-6, but a late Gibbons goal gave Mercy a 9-6 lead at halftime.
Bentley scored the first two goals of the third quarter to cut the Mercy lead to just one, 9-8, with 4:40 left in the quarter. Umano made two key saves to keep the Falcons from tying the game and Caskenette scored again with just two seconds left in the quarter, off a pass from Calabria, to give the Mavericks a 10-8 lead after three quarters.
Eccles and Heyder netted two straight goals to open the fourth quarter, giving Mercy a 12-8 lead with 11:11 left. Luke Jaber scored Bentley's final goal at the 8:16 mark to make it 12-9. However, Scorcia scored less than a minute later to give the Mavericks a 13-9 lead and Kearnan and Eccles each added a goal to give Mercy a 15-9 lead with 2:45 remaining. Umano made six saves in the fourth quarter to help limit the Falcons to just one goal, giving Mercy the win.
Bentley held a 41-37 edge in shots and Mercy held a 27-25 edge in ground balls. Mercy went 13-of-26 on faceoffs.
Head Coach Jordan Levine and the Mavericks resume action on Sunday, March 20th when they play at Seton Hill at 12 p.m.
