KINGS POINT, N.Y. (April 27, 2024) – The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy men's lacrosse team bested conference-undefeated Farmingdale State, 14-9, on Saturday to close out the regular season on Senior Day at Brooks Stadium. With the victory, the Mariners' record improves to 10-4 (6-1 Skyline), while the Rams fall to 14-3 (6-1 Skyline) in defeat.
Game Links
Prior to the game, USMMA paid tribute to its 11 graduating seniors with a special Senior Day ceremony honoring
Dylan Lomelo (Old Bethpage, N.Y.),
Bryce U'Selis (Quakertown, Pa.),
Dom Mirack (Stevensville, Md.),
Maverick Geller (Hood River, Ore.),
Erich Diehl (Long Valley, N.J.),
Jackson Lynch (Charleston, S.C.),
Charlie Ross (Lakewood, Colo.),
Coby Schwartz (Pittsburgh, Pa.),
Josh Plumb (Portsmouth, R.I.),
Sam Winkler (Moorestown, N.J.) and
Mark Bredeck (Severna Park, Md.). To re-watch the entire ceremony,
follow this link.
Junior
Jack Collins (Memphis, Tenn.) scored a season-high five goals as part of a game-best seven-point performance with two assists. Freshman
Owen Behr (Vestavia Hills, Ala.) was right behind with six points after scoring three times and dishing out three helpers. Two other Mariners recorded-multi-point games with sophomore
William Badeer (Pittsburgh, Pa.) adding two goals and two assists and classmate
Jack DeTommaso (Massapequa, N.Y.) finding the back of the net two times. DeTommaso also picked up five ground balls on the day.
Defensively, sophomore
Michael Valentine IV () led all players with four caused turnovers to go along with four ground balls. Mirack caused two Farmingdale TOs. Junior face-off man
Chris Neuman () won 12 draws and tied for the game-high with six GBs, while freshman goalie
Julian Garcia () made 10 saves to earn the victory. Senior
Coby Schwartz () came in in the final 33 seconds and made two stops on Farmingdale shots.
The visiting Rams jumped out to a 3-0 lead less than three minutes into the game, but the Mariners scored the last four goals of the first quarter as part of a six-goal run into the latter part of the second frame. Farmingdale finished the half with two of the last three tallies and Merchant Marine took a 7-5 lead into the halftime break.
After FSC opened the scoring early in the third, the Mariners strung together the next four goals, two in the same stanza and another two early in the fourth. The Rams scored three of the next four to make it 13-9 with 5:40 to play, and the Mariners closed out the scoring in the final minute of play.
For the Rams, junior Michael Cassano had a team-best three points on two goals and one assist. Senior Kyle Kolano scored twice and senior Gerardo Maldonado found the back of the net once to go along with one helper. Three players tied for the team-high with two caused turnovers and freshman Sean Lawson scooped up six ground balls to tie Neuman for the game-high. Junior goalie Dan Erler made 14 saves in the losing effort.
The Mariners have qualified for the upcoming Skyline Conference Championship Tournament, with semifinal action taking place on Tuesday, April 30, on the campus of the #1 seed. The seedings for the tourney will be announced later on Saturday by the Skyline Conference. Stay logged on to
www.USMMASports.com and our social media pages (links below) for more information as it becomes available.
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