SPARKILL, N.Y. (Apr. 23, 2023) – Powered by a game-high eight points from senior Brady Kearnan (Courtice, Ontario/Newberry College), the No. 6/9 Mercy College men's lacrosse team earned a 17-4 win over ECC foe St. Thomas Aquinas College on Sunday afternoon at Spartan Field.

The Mavericks (11-3, 5-0 ECC) bounce back from their first home loss of the season and remain undefeated in ECC play. The Spartans (5-7, 1-4 ECC) have dropped all seven meetings to Mercy.

Kearnan had four goals and a game-high four assists and senior TJ Heyder (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y./Comsewogue) had a game-high five goals. Sophomore Ryan Smith (Bethpage, N.Y./Bethpage) and freshman Devon Duchnowski (Miller Place, N.Y./Miller Place) both had two goals and graduate student Thomas Connors (Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) and junior Andrew Calabria (Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Sachem North) both had a goal and an assist. Junior Jason Kuehner (Hackettstown, N.J./Hackettstown) had a goal, eight ground balls and went 11-of-15 on faceoffs. He recorded his 100th career ground ball and now has 103 for his career. Freshman Danny Fitzgerald (Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) scored his first career goal and freshman Ryken Kutner (Riverhead, N.Y./Riverhead) had an assist. Senior Justin Gerdvil (East Northport, N.Y./Northport) had one caused turnover and five ground balls and graduate student Tommy Umano (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) made six saves in 34:17 minutes of action to earn the win.

St. Thomas Aquinas was led by Steven Apicella and Carlos Aguilar who both had two goals. Craig Peavy made 16 saves to take the loss.

The game remained scoreless until the 5:50 mark when Duchnowski scored his first goal of the game to make it 1-0. The score remained 1-0 after one quarter of play.

A goal from Heyder and two straight goals from Kearnan made it 4-0 with 11:51 left in the half. Heyder closed the half with three straight goals to give Mercy a 7-0 lead at halftime.

Kuehner scored after winning the opening faceoff of the third quarter to make it 8-0. Apicella got the Spartans on the scoreboard at the 13:42 mark to make it 8-1. Back-to-back goals from Heyder and Calabria made it 10-1 before Kearnan netted two straight to give the Mavericks a 12-1 lead at the 10:06 mark. Connors and Duchnowski continued the onslaught with goals to make it 14-1 with 6:37 on the clock. Apicella and Aguilar recorded back-to-back goals to make it 14-3. Fitzgerald and Smith capped off the scoring in the quarter to give Mercy a commanding 16-3 win after three quarters.

Smith made it 17-3 just 13 seconds into the fourth quarter. Aguilar scored a late goal for St. Thomas Aquinas, but it was not enough and Mercy cruised to the 17-4 win.

Mercy held a 52-35 edge in shots, a 40-28 edge in ground balls and went 17-of-24 on faceoffs.

Head Coach Ryan MacSpadyen and the Mavericks resume action on Thursday, April 27th when they host Molloy for Senior Day at 3 p.m.