DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Feb. 15, 2025) – Powered by a game-high nine points from graduate student Jimmy Osorio (Ronkonkoma, N.Y./Newberry College), the No. 5/11 Mercy University men's lacrosse team earned a 17-5 win over Franklin Pierce University in their 2025 season opener on Saturday afternoon at Mercy Field.
The Mavericks (1-0) win their seventh straight season opener and their 13th straight home opener. Mercy improves to 2-1 all-time against the Ravens (0-1) in the teams' first meeting since 2011.
Mercy was led by Osorio who had a game-high-tying five goals with a game-high four assists to go with five ground balls in his Mercy debut. Freshman Cole Hunsberger (Waterloo, Ontario/Grand River Collegiate Institute) added a game-high-tying five goals in his collegiate debut and senior Ryan Smith had two goals and three assists. Sophomore Christopher Bergersen (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) had two goals and two assists and graduate student Aidan Babnik (Carmel, N.Y./LIU) had two goals in his Mercy debut. Sophomore Colin Orsino (Brookhaven, N.Y./Bellport) scored a goal and juniors Connor Abrahall (Holtsville, N.Y./St. John the Baptist Diocesan) and Devon Duchnowski (Miller Place, N.Y./Miller Place) both added an assist. Junior Kenneth Summit (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y./Limestone University) went 13-of-19 on faceoffs with five ground balls and an assist and senior Ryan Resnick (Bethpage, N.Y./Bethpage) went 7-of-7 on faceoffs with four ground balls. Sophomore Jake Norton (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) recorded a game-high seven ground balls and a game-high-tying two caused turnovers. Sophomore Cameron Dorfman (West Islip, N.Y./West Islip) made five saves in the first 40:57 minutes of action to earn the win. Junior Peter Murphy (Port Jefferson, N.Y./Port Jefferson) made five saves in 16:03 minutes of action and freshman Ryan Strzalkowski (Mamaroneck, N.Y./Archbishop Stepinac) made two saves in the final 3:00 minutes of action without allowing a goal.
Franklin Pierce was led by Nick Sawyer who had a goal and an assist. Mike Masterpolo made a game-high 18 saves to take the loss.
The game remained scoreless for nearly half of the first quarter before Chris Hunt gave the Ravens a 1-0 lead at the 8:41 mark of the first quarter. Osorio tied the game at 1-1 on his first goal as a Maverick, off a Smith assist, with 4:26 on the clock. Hunsberger found the back of the net for the first time in his career on man-up goal less than a minute later to give Mercy a 2-1 lead. Hunsberger closed the quarter with two more goals to give the Mavericks a 4-1 lead after the first quarter.
Goals by Babnik, Bergersen and Hunsberger to open the second quarter gave Mercy a commanding 7-1 lead with 8:25 left in the first half. A Sawyer goal at the 6:30 mark made it 7-2 before goals from Smith and Babnik gave Mercy a 9-2 advantage with 5:00 on the clock. Osorio scored two more goals to close out the quarter, giving the Mavericks an 11-2 lead at halftime.
Smith and Osorio recorded goals in the first two minutes of the third quarter to give Mercy a 13-2 lead. An Aidan Gibbons goal for Franklin Pierce made it 13-3 with 11:26 on the clock. Three straight goals from Hunsberger, Bergersen and Osorio put the Mavericks up 16-3 with 2:53 remaining in the quarter. A late Ravens goal cut the Mavericks lead to 12, 16-4, after the third quarter.
Franklin Pierce scored their final goal of the game at the 13:10 mark of the fourth quarter to make it 16-5. Orsino recorded the final Mercy goal of the game with 12:18 left, off an Abrahall assist, giving the Mavericks a 17-5 lead. Mercy cruised the rest of the way and earned the 17-5 win.
Mercy held a 46-24 edge in shots, a 38-19 edge in ground balls and went 20-of-26 on faceoffs.
Head Coach Ryan MacSpadyen and the Mavericks resume action on Tuesday, February 18th when they play at Georgian Court at 3 p.m.
