POUGHKEEPSIE, NY — Men’s Lacrosse hosted the Quinnipiac Bobcats on Saturday for their Senior Day. While the Red Foxes were looking to snap their two game losing streak and end their season on a high note, the Bobcats were looking to extend their winning streak to five as they head into the playoffs.
Marist trailed by as much as five at one point but fought back to close the gap with a 10-8 deficit going into halftime. Heading into the fourth quarter, the Red Foxes trailed Quinnipiac 13-11 and fell to the Bobcats at a final score of 17-14.
Senior Brian Feldman opened up the scoring for Quinnipiac with 14:34 left in the first quarter. Red shirt freshman Jake Weinman answered with a goal of his own for Marist with 11:13 left to tie it at 1-1. Freshman Jake Tomsik and junior Mike Fletcher each scored for Quinnipiac giving the Bobcats a 3-1 lead with 10:06 left in the first quarter.
Head Coach Keegan Wilkinson said, “We were a little slow coming out of the gate, but we calmed down and got underneath ourselves and played some good ball.”
Senior Kyle Quinn scored for Marist to cut the lead in half with 8:47 left. In response, Feldman scores his second goal of the day to once again give the Bobcats a two goal lead with 7:05 left in the first quarter. Junior Foster Cuomo scored for Quinnipiac to make the Bobcat’s lead at 5-2 with 6:45 left.
After the game, Coach Wilkinson said, “I’m really proud of those guys. A lot of teams could have just laid down with one game left, but our seniors did an awesome job.”
Marist freshman Jason Intermesoli scored with 2:56 left in the first quarter to make it 5-3 Quinnipiac. Cuomo went on to score an impressive one-handed goal with 1:50 left as senior Ryan Lawson followed with a goal of his own to put the Bobcats up 7-3 with 55 seconds left in the first quarter.
The Quinnipiac attack displayed dominant agility and maneuvering that proved to be too quick for the Marist defense. The Bobcats were repeatedly able to get good looks at the net and were successful in converting their chances.
For the remainder of the first quarter, Marist and Quinnipiac continued to trade goals until sophomore Joe Tierney scored with 40 seconds left to make it 7-4 Quinnipiac. Tomsik and Feldman both scored to give the Bobcats a 9-4 lead and their largest lead of the game with 11:46 left in the half. Red-shirt junior Liam Walsh scored of an assist from senior Gannon Morrison with 6:56 left to cut Quinnipiac’s lead to 9-5 Quinnipiac.
“Quinnipiac came out fast,” Coach Wilkinson said, “They were ready to play.”
Weinman scored off an assist from Intermesoli to further cut the deficit to three with 4:43 left in the half. Quinnpipiac’s Tomsik teamed up with Fletcher to respond to Marist’s two-goal run and lift the Bobcats to 10-6 with 4:03 left. Weinman and sophomore Chris Schlappich both scored for Marist before both team entered the locker room at the half with a score of 10-8.
“I’m really proud of these guys for coming out and continuing to fight. That’s the Marist way,” said Coach Wilkinson on the team battling Quinnipiac the entire game.
The Bobcats started off the scoring for the second half with a shot from Tomsik in the first scored 11 seconds. Morrison responded with 11:45 left in the third quarter to make it 11-9 Quinnipiac. Weinman continued to cut Quinnipiac’s lead scoring with 6:42 left in the quarter and bringing Marist within one goal. Feldman scored again to give the Bobcats a 12-10 lead with 5:50 left in the third.
Once again, Weinman responded with another goal for Marist to make the score 12-11 Quinnipiac with 3:37 left in the third. Tomsik scored with 2:21 left in the third quarter and gave the Bobcats a 13-11 lead going into the fourth quarter.
Cuomo, Fletcher, Feldman and freshman Sam Witt all scored for Quinnipiac in the fourth quarter lifting Bobcats to 17-12 with 3:11 left in the game. Quinn, Intermesoli and Morison scored for Marist in the fourth quarter. However, it was not enough and the Quinnipiac Bobcats topped the Red Foxes 17-14.
Quinnipiac kept their win streak alive and improved to 9-5 on their season while Marist ended a disappointing season on a four-game losing streak and fell to 3-12 overall.Quinnipiac will play in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Semifinals in New Jersey on May 3.
