In their first meeting in over a decade, Marist men’s lacrosse (4-7, 3-3 MAAC) fell to Mount St. Mary’s (6-6, 5-1 MAAC) by a score of 12-9. Marist fell behind 6-1 at the half before rallying for eight goals in the second half; in the end, it wasn’t enough to secure a victory. Nine goals were the Red Foxes’ lowest-scoring output in conference play this season.
With both teams riding win streaks into today, the game was destined to be a good one. Coming into today’s contest, Mount St. Mary’s needed a win to separate themselves in the MAAC conference, while Marist sought a victory to keep pace in a tight conference race.
The Red Foxes wanted to get off to a hot start and graduate student Jamison Embury delivered, putting his team on the board with an early goal. On ensuing possessions, goals from Mount St. Mary’s graduate student attackman Jeremy Wilson, junior midfielder William Vandegrift and then another two goals in a span of 15 seconds put the Mountaineers up 4-1 as they went on a four-goal run.
At the start of the second quarter, sophomore midfielder Connor Barrett and junior Kyle Cullen scored, putting the Mountaineers up 6-1. Marist had a bunch of chances in the first half to score but they could not finish, as they were held to only one goal in the first half.
To start of the second half, graduate student midfielder Kelly Gouin and freshman attackman TJ Gravante continued the scoring, putting them up 8-1. Trying to stop the bleeding, Marist finally netted a goal from sophomore attackmen Jake Deacy to cut the lead to 8-2. The Mountaineers halted the Marist momentum as graduate student midfielder Jake Krieger responded with a score, pushing the lead to 9-2.
Marist graduate student attackmen JoJo Pirreca was quiet all day until he scored back-to-back goals. Graduate student Hunter Embury and freshman midfielder Vinny Butrico followed suit, cutting the Mount lead down to three, 9-6. Butrico is a man-up specialist, as all seven goals he has on the season came on the extra man.
With two minutes left in the third, Gouin stopped the bleeding and found the back of the net to put his team up 10-6.
Marist needed a strong fourth quarter but couldn’t get the hot start they needed as Krieger netted another one, making the score 11-6. Pirrecca, who was the MAAC Preseason Offensive Player of the Year, would not let his team give up as scored his third of the day to cut the lead to 11-7 Mountaineers.
Again, Gouin was a pain in Marist’s back, completing the hat trick to restore his team’s lead to five. Marist responded once again, as senior defender Ryan McDaniel notched the first goal of his career, and graduate student midfielder James Lyons followed it up to cut the lead back down to three, 12-9. This would ultimately stand up as the final score.
The faceoff matchup was a good one, as senior Matt Fermo and sophomore Dylan Bedell combined to win 12 out of 25 faceoffs for Marist. Mount St. Mary’s senior Connor Beals, who has a 62 percent win rate this season, went 13 out of 25 on the day.
The goalie matchup in this game was a good one too as junior goalie Griffin McGinley finished with 14 saves for the Mountaineers, while sophomore goalie Noble Smith finished with 7 saves for Marist.
On the defensive side, sophomore defender Aidan McCaffrey caused turnovers on the day for the Red Foxes.
Marist has a short turnaround as they travel up to Siena to face the Saints on ESPNU at 12 p.m. on April 12.
Edited by Luke Sassa
Photo Credit: Jonathan Kinane