After a historic run in the MAAC Tournament, the Marist men’s lacrosse season ended on Wednesday night in the first round of the NCAA tournament with a 25-10 loss to Delaware. Prior to this game, Marist had not lost a game in six tries.
Delaware had two players who were drafted last night in the first three rounds of the Premier Lacrosse League; these players were senior defenseman Owen Grant (2nd overall) and senior attackman Tye Kurtz (17th overall). Grant finished with 5 ground balls and Kurtz finished with 8 points.
Senior attackman Mike Robinson led the way with seven goals for the Blue Hens.
To start the game, Delaware scored on back-to-back possessions, as Kurtz found the net against the Red Fox goalie to make it 2-0 Delaware. After a save by Marist, the Red Foxes could not clear the ball in time, leading to a goal from senior attackman Mike Robinson.
Marist needed an answer and they got just that as senior midfielder captain James Lyons got one back for his side to make it 3-1 in favor of the Blue Hens. Three minutes later, sophomore Jake Deacy ripped a beautiful shot right by the Delaware goalie to draw Marist within one.
Delaware answered with a goal from Ward, his 37th of the season. Graduate student attackman JoJo Pirreca grabbed a ground ball and found senior midfielder Kellen Pulera wide open in front of the cage to shrink the Delaware lead to 4-3.
Every time Marist seemed to have some momentum swing their way, Delaware went down on the other end and scored. This time, it was Robinson doing the honors to push the Delaware lead to 5-3 at the end of the first quarter.
The Blue Hens opened up the second quarter with a goal from Robinson, his third of the game. Graduate student midfielder Hunter Embury got one back, but Delaware answered yet again with goals from Kurtz, his 57th of the season, and junior attackman JP Ward, his 38th of the year, to put them up 8-4.
On the man-up, the Blue Hens struck off a goal from junior midfielder Cam Acchione. Marist sophomore faceoff man Dylan Bedell responded with a score to make it 9-5, but Delaware answered quickly as senior midfielder Nick Jesson and Kurtz scored to push the lead to six.
Delaware added on three more goals before going into the half, ending the scoring run up 14-5. Marist was outscored 9-2 in the second quarter.
Marist began the third quarter with a goal from graduate student attackman Jamison Embur on the extra man. The Blue Hens once again answered right away with a goal from Acchione.
Marist couldn’t keep up with the high-scoring Delaware offense, as Pirreca didn’t factor into the scoring until the fourth quarter. Delaware added on some goals in the fourth and ultimately salted away the game before the final whistle blew.
Marist came in needing to win as many faceoffs as possible to create some extra possessions. A combination of Bedell and senior Matt Fermo went 17 out of 39 on the night. Delaware’s senior faceoff man Roland Hockenbery went 22 out of 39.
Each goalie won their respective conference tournament’s Most Valuable Player award, so this game had the makings of a great matchup. Senior goalie Dan O’Meara ended today’s game with 12 saves. On the other side of the ball Delaware’s graduate student Matt Kilkeary finished with 9 saves tonight.
Delaware will move on to face the number one overall seed Duke Blue Devils on Sunday, May 14 at 5 p.m.
Edited by Luke Sassa
Photo Credit: Marist Athletics via Stockton Photo