DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Apr. 21, 2024) – Powered by eight different Mavericks recording a point and senior Jason Kuehner (Hackettstown, N.J./Hackettstown) going 26-of-34 on faceoffs with a game-high 15 ground balls, the No. 6 Mercy University men's lacrosse team earned an 18-16 win over No. 12 Mercyhurst University on Sunday afternoon at Mercy Field.
The Mavericks (11-1) have won seven games in a row and earn their first-ever home win over the Lakers (10-4).
Mercy was led by senior Brody Caskenette (Owen Sound, Ontario/Owen Sound District Secondary School) who had a game-high five goals and by senior Andrew Calabria (Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Sachem North) who had a game-high six points on four goals and two assists. Senior Greg Gibbons (North Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) had three goals and two assists and sophomore Devon Duchnowski (Miller Place, N.Y./Miller Place) and freshman Christopher Bergersen (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) both had two goals and an assist. Graduate student TJ Heyder (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y./Comsewogue) had a goal and two assists and sophomore Matthew Kramer (West Islip, N.Y./West Islip) also scored. Senior Damiano Ferrara (Hackettstown, N.J./Hackettstown) had two assists and a team-high-tying three caused turnovers and Kuehner went 26-of-34 on faceoffs with 15 ground balls. Kuehner recorded his 500th career faceoff won and now has 519 career faceoffs won. He becomes the second Mav in program history to record 500 faceoff wins. Graduate student Justin Gerdvil (East Northport, N.Y./Northport) had three caused turnovers and four ground balls and sophomore Peter Murphy (Port Jefferson, N.Y./Port Jefferson) made eight saves to earn the win.
Mercyhurst was led by Jeremi Phoenix-Lefebvre who had a team-high five points on three goals and two assists. Brett Olney made three saves in the first quarter with seven goals allowed to take the loss. Tyler Moritzen made 10 saves in the final three quarters.
Calabria gave the Mavericks a 1-0 lead at the 12:27 mark of the first quarter. Kramer, Gibbons, Duchnowski and Bergersen scored four more goals to give Mercy a 5-0 lead with 5:19 left in the quarter, leading to a Mercyhurst timeout. Following the timeout, Caskenette and Calabria closed the quarter with goals to give Mercy a commanding 7-0 lead after the first quarter.
A Heyder goal from Ferrara at the 13:33 mark of the second quarter gave Mercy a game-high eight-goal lead, 8-0. Ethan Landymore got the Lakers on the scoreboard with 11:28 left in the half, making it 8-1. Duchnowski followed with a man-up goal from Gibbons giving the Mavericks a 9-1 lead with 10:11 on the clock. Back-to-back Mercyhurst goals made it 9-3 with 7:16 remaining in the half. Bergersen made it 10-3 before a Luke Ingianni goal made it 10-4 with 6:17 left in the quarter. Gibbons scored the final Mercy goal of the half with 5:42 on the clock, off an assist from Heyder, to give the Mavericks an 11-4 lead. The Lakers scored the final two goals of the quarter to cut Mercy's lead to five, 11-6, at halftime.
A Casey Scott goal to open the third quarter made it 11-7. Caskenette answered with a goal at the 13:09 mark, off a Ferrara caused turnover and assist, to make it 12-7. Two straight Mercyhurst goals made it 12-9 with 10:24 remaining in the quarter. Caskenette and Gibbons recorded back-to-back goals to increase the Mercy lead back to five, 14-9, with 6:29 on the clock. The Lakers tallied the next three goals to cut the Mavericks lead to two, 14-12, with 1:25 left in the quarter. A late Caskenette goal from Calabria gave Mercy a 15-12 lead after three quarters.
Mercyhurst scored the first goal of the fourth quarter to make it 15-13 with 13:42 left. Calabria later made it 16-13 and Caskenette netted a man-up goal to give Mercy a 17-13 lead with 10:46 remaining. Consecutive goals from the Lakers got Mercyhurst back to within two, 17-15, with 4:12 left. Kuehner won the ensuing faceoff and Calabria scored a goal following a Mercy timeout to give the Mavericks an 18-15 lead with 3:42 left. Colin Schmatz later made it 18-16 with 3:11 on the clock. However, Mercy held the Lakers scoreless for the final 3:11 to earn the 18-16 win.
Mercy held a 40-33 edge in shots, a 49-30 edge in ground balls and went 29-of-38 on faceoffs.
Head Coach Ryan MacSpadyen and the Mavericks resume action on Sunday, April 28th when they host D'Youville at 12 p.m.
