Marist men’s lacrosse (7-6, 5-2 MAAC) won their final home game of the season 15-7, taking down the Merrimack Warriors (2-10, 1-6 MAAC). Eight Red Foxes scored, including hat tricks from senior attacker Jake Deacy and sophomore attacker Sean Mullan. Freshman attacker Brady Dolan and graduate student midfielder Josh Balcarcel scored a pair in the win.
Marist fired 57 shots in the win, moving to 7-1 when they shoot 43 or more times. 57 shots mark a new season-high for the Red Foxes.
Marist led 7-1 after 20 minutes of play. The Red Foxes scored once more in the half and went into the break up 8-3. Neither team scored a goal in the first seven minutes of the game. Marist was the only team to score in the first quarter, putting up four.
The Warriors shot a below-average 31 times, putting 16 of them on target, not giving freshman goalie Adam Wacholder much to think about.
Wacholder made nine saves, improving his save percentage to .523. Merrimack’s junior goalie Anthony Kulturides made nine saves but conceded just too many to keep his team in the game.
Senior faceoff specialist Dylan Bedell stayed red hot for Marist, winning 17 of his 23 faceoffs.
Sophomore attacker Collin Patrick scored and assisted a goal apiece, moving his season points tally to 49. Patrick, an All-MAAC Rookie last year, has now scored in all 13 of Marist’s games.
Senior midfielder Ryan Jones scored his first goal in three years, and only the third of his four-year career. Sophomore attacker Steven Cain, junior midfielder Drew Anderson, and senior midfielder Sam Ferrel made up the rest of Marist’s scorers.
Six Warriors scored in the loss, which eliminated them from the MAAC playoffs. Senior attacker Brian Bouwman scored twice, with sophomore attacker Colin Kruger scoring once and assisting on two.
Merrimack scored three times in the second quarter to go into the half with some momentum, although Marist’s four goals kept the game still largely out of reach.
Marist repeated their first two quarters, scoring four goals to open the second half. Merrimack found the net twice, entering the fourth quarter with a lot to do as they needed to score more than they had up to that point.
Senior goalie Noble Smith made an appearance in the fourth after Wacholder committed a penalty. Smith saved one shot and conceded another before being switched back.
Merrimack scored the first two goals in the final frame, going on a three-goal unanswered run across the final bit of the third quarter and opening bit of the fourth.
Sophomore midfielder Conor Noone scored on a Kruger assist, then Kruger got one of his own a couple of minutes later. That pair cut the lead to five as Marist needed a response to quiet the visitors.
In the end, they got three responses. Balcarcel got it first, then Ferrel got his. Finally, Mullan finished his hat trick as Marist just wound the clock down up eight.
Marist travels to Siena for their final game of the season, with the result of the contest affecting both teams’ playoff seeds greatly. Marist is 5-2, with a tiebreaker over Canisius (6-1 MAAC), but not Sacred Heart (6-1 MAAC). The winner of the Marist-Siena game will likely host a game as the three-seed before traveling for the semi-finals.
Siena lost to Sacred Heart in overtime, as did Marist. The Saints’ second-to-last game comes at 1:30 pm on Saturday, Apr 19, with a huge chance for Siena to match Marist’s tiebreakers.
The game against Siena is scheduled for 4 pm on Wednesday, April 23.
Edited by Marley Pope
Graphic and photo by Kira Crutcher
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