DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Mar. 19, 2023) – Powered by a game-high and career-high five goals from junior Brody Caskenette (Owen Sound, Ontario/Owen Sound District Secondary School), the No. 3/4 Mercy College men's lacrosse team earned a 21-14 win over RV Roberts Wesleyan University in their ECC opener on Sunday afternoon at Mercy Field.

The Mavericks (6-1, 1-0 ECC) have won four games in a row and have won 22 straight games against ECC competition. Mercy also improves to 13-0 all-time against the Redhawks (5-3, 0-1 ECC).

Caskenette had five goals and graduate student Thomas Connors (Bellmore, N.Y./DeSales University) had a game-high eight points on two goals and a game-high six assists. Senior TJ Heyder (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y./Comsewogue) had three goals and two assists, recording his 100th career point in the process. Graduate student Jack Gibbons (North Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) netted three goals and an assist, recording his 100th career goal as a Maverick. Sophomore Ian Votta (Levittown, N.Y./NJIT) produced two goals and two assists and freshman Devon Duchnowski (Miller Place, N.Y./Miller Place) and junior Andrew Calabria (Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Sachem North) both had two goals. Junior Cristian Castles (Bethpage, N.Y./Bethpage) had a goal and an assist and junior Damiano Ferrara (Hackettstown, N.J./Hackettstown) also scored. Senior Robert Guglielmo (Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) had two assists and junior Jason Kuehner (Hackettstown, N.J./Hackettstown) went 20-of-23 on faceoffs with eight ground balls and two assists. Senior PJ Argiros (Levittown, N.Y./Nassau CC) went 12-of-15 on faceoffs with five ground balls and an assist and senior Justin Gerdvil (East Northport, N.Y./Northport) had a career-high 11 ground balls with two caused turnovers. Graduate student Jack Kipnes (Wantagh, N.Y./MacArthur) added six ground balls and two caused turnovers. Graduate student Tommy Umano (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) made six saves in 52:10 minutes of action to earn the win. Graduate student Joe Tortorella (Franklin Square, N.Y./H. Frank Carey) made two saves in the final 7:50 minutes of action.

Roberts Wesleyan was led by Jordon Deats who had a team-high four points on three goals and an assist. Andy Davis made a game-high 14 saves to take the loss.

Heyder opened the scoring at the 11:11 mark of the first quarter, off an assist from Guglielmo, to give the Mavericks a 1-0 lead. Caskenette and Calabria followed with goals to give Mercy a 3-0 lead with 7:36 left in the quarter. Deats and Reid Jackowski recorded two straight Redhawks goals to cut Mercy's lead to 3-2 with 5:36 on the clock. Caskenette, Gibbons and Votta rattled off three straight goals to increase the Mavericks lead to four, 6-2, with 4:29 remaining in the quarter. Gunner MacMillan later made it 6-3, but another Votta goal gave the Mavericks a 7-3 lead after the first quarter.

Jacob Zimmerman began the scoring in the second quarter to cut Mercy's lead to 7-4. Duchnowski quickly answered with consecutive goals to give the Mavericks a 9-4 lead with eight minutes left in the half. Two MacMillan goals made it 9-6, but Caskenette found the back of the net again to give Mercy a 10-6 lead. Jackowski made it 10-7, but a goal from Caskenette, two goals from Connors and a goal from Ferrara gave the Mavericks a 14-7 lead at halftime.

Jonathon Deats cut the Mercy lead to 14-8 at the 11:42 mark of the third quarter. Calabria and Caskenette scored the final two goals of the quarter to give the Mavericks a 16-8 lead after three quarters.

Castles, Gibbons and Heyder scored three straight goals to open the fourth quarter, giving the Mavericks a 19-8 lead with 12:23 left. Goals from Ethan Brown and Dan Doviak made it 19-10 with 10 minutes remaining. Heyder gave Mercy a 20-10 lead with his final goal of the game at the 7:50 mark. Back-to-back Redhawks goals made it 20-12 with 5:35 on the clock. Gibbons scored his 100th career goal, off an assist from Connors, with 3:38 left to give the Mavericks a 21-12 lead. Roberts Wesleyan scored the last two goals of the game, but the deficit proved too much to overcome and Mercy came away with the win.

Mercy had a 50-32 edge in shots, a 55-32 edge in ground balls and went 32-of-38 on faceoffs.

Head Coach Ryan MacSpadyen and the Mavericks resume action on Wednesday, March 22nd when they host Bentley at 3 p.m.