ROCHESTER, N.Y. (Mar. 16, 2024) – Powered by eight different Mavericks recording a point, a game-high five caused turnovers from graduate student Justin Gerdvil (East Northport, N.Y./Northport) and a game-high 14 ground balls from senior Jason Kuehner (Hackettstown, N.J./Hackettstown), the No. 6 Mercy University men's lacrosse team opened ECC play with a 12-11 win at Roberts Wesleyan University on Saturday afternoon at Redhawks Field.
The Mavericks (6-1, 1-0 ECC) have won two games in a row and improved to 14-0 all-time against the Redhawks (6-4, 0-1 ECC). Mercy has won 30 straight games against ECC competition, dating back to 2018.
Mercy was led by graduate student TJ Heyder (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y./Comsewogue) who had a game-high-tying four points on three goals and one assist. Senior Andrew Calabria (Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Sachem North) also had a game-high four points on a goal and a game-high three assists and sophomore Devon Duchnowski (Miller Place, N.Y./Miller Place) scored a game-high-tying three goals. Freshman Christopher Bergersen (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) scored two goals and seniors Greg Gibbons (North Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) and Brody Caskenette (Owen Sound, Ontario/Owen Sound District Secondary School) each had a goal and an assist. Kuehner had a goal, a game-high 14 ground balls and went 19-of-27 on faceoffs. Senior Damiano Ferrara (Hackettstown, N.J./Hackettstown) dished out an assist and Gerdvil had a game-high five caused turnovers with six ground balls. Gerdvil recorded his 200th career ground ball and now has 202 for his career. He becomes the second Maverick in program history to record 200 career ground balls. Freshman Cameron Dorfman (West Islip, N.Y./West Islip) made eight saves to earn the win in goal.
Roberts Wesleyan was led by Jordon Deats who had a game-high-tying three goals. Garrett Kayser made a game-high 15 saves to take the loss.
The Redhawks took a 1-0 lead just 31 seconds into the game before Bergersen tied the game at 1-1 with his first of the day at the 13:38 mark. Duchnowski, Calabria and Heyder followed with three more goals to give Mercy a 4-1 lead with 7:45 left in the first quarter. Roberts Wesleyan scored the final two goals of the quarter to cut the Mavericks' lead to one, 4-3, after the first quarter.
A Sam Keens goal at the 13:37 mark of the second quarter tied the game at 4-4. A Heyder goal from Calabria made it 5-4 with 5:33 on the clock before Dan Doviak tied the game again at 5-5 with 2:51 remaining in the half. Kuehner won the ensuing faceoff and scored giving Mercy a 6-5 lead and Duchnowski scored the final two goals of the half to give the Mavericks an 8-5 lead at halftime.
A Gunner MacMillan goal to begin the third quarter cut Mercy's lead to, 8-6, with 13:01 left in the quarter. Goals from Gibbons, Heyder and Bergersen gave the Mavericks a game-high five-goal lead, 11-6, with 6:25 remaining in the quarter. Roberts Wesleyan scored the final three goals of the quarter to cut Mercy's lead to 11-9 after the third quarter.
Roberts Wesleyan scored the first goal of the fourth quarter to make it 11-10. Caskenette later made it 12-10 with 13:06 left to play after an assist by Gibbons. MacMillan got the Redhawks back to within one, 12-11, with 4:25 remaining. Roberts Wesleyan was awarded a man-up opportunity with 28 seconds left, but Dorfman came up with a key save on a Doviak attempt with four seconds left to give Mercy the 12-11 win.
Mercy held a 41-40 edge in shots, a 32-14 edge in ground balls and went 19-of-27 on faceoffs.
Head Coach Ryan MacSpadyen and the Mavericks resume action on Saturday, March 23rd when they host UDC at 3 p.m.
