The Mercy Mavericks men’s lacrosse team suffered their first loss of the season on March 14after winning their first six matchups of the season.
The Mavericks dropped to 6-1 while the winning team. St Michael’s College, advanced to 1-1.
“It was a tough loss but I think there were a lot of positives we took from it,” said Head Coach Jordan Levine. “As far as face-offs and ground ball play – we did a good job. I think our man-down defense has been good. There are a lot of positives we can take from that game.”
Mercy racked up three points in the game’s opening 10 minutes before the Purple Knights grabbed two of those back. In the second quarter, St. Michael’s scored five times, while Mercy had three goals. At halftime, the guests led, 7-6. St. Michael’s Purple Knights scored three goals in a matter of seven seconds in the third quarter. By the start of the fourth period, the Purple Knights led, 11-7.
St. Michael’s ended the game with a 14-9 victory.
“This is a whole new season and we are starting our conference games,” said Levine. “These next couple of games is going to dictate how our season goes and if we will be eligible for the post season or not.”
Sophomore Jesse Wood scored three goals and dished out one assist, while freshman Kyle Stockton notched two goals. Over the first three periods, junior Mike Cashman manned the cage but no saves, while rookie net minder A.J. Pellati from made three saves in the final quarter.
Levine is determined to have a great season and is very proud of his team.
“I feel pretty good about it [the season] so far. We are off to a 6-1 start. We are starting our conference play but the margin for error is very small. We are on the same footing as most of the top teams in our conference like Dowling, L.I.U Post and New York Tech; each one of them has one loss on their record too.”
Levine and the rest of the Mavs return to the field on March 23 for an away game to Long Island to play Dowling College to ignite East Coast Conference action. Game time is set for 1 p.m.
After this tough loss Levine is ready for his team to learn from their mistakes and prepare for Dowling.
“I think we can recover; we have 10 days off to prepare for Dowling, the defending national champions,” said Levine. “We have to correct some of the things that we didn’t do too well for Saint Michaels and we will be more prepared to have a good shot against Dowling.”
Mercy Mavericks have won their last several games this season thus far. Mavs won 14- 10 against Saint Rose with Joe Poppe and Mike Marzocca scoring seven goals. They won 10 -8 against Southern New Hampshire with Marzocca scoring yet another five goals and Poppe and
Kyle Stockon helping him out by making two goals each. Yet another win from the Mavs when they come out victorious against Alderson-Broaddus with a 13-6 win; their star players’ being once again Poppe and Jesse Wood. The most recent game that the Mavs won was 19-10 against Ohio Valley with freshman Kevin Drane scoring four times and sophomore Jesse Wood and senior Mike Marzocca having two goals each.
On March 12, the East Coast Conference awarded Marzocca its Player Of The Week honor after an eight goal, three assist performance that week. The ECC also named Wood to is Honor Roll. Wood scored seven times and had four assists to earn the honor.
This is the fourth year of existence for the program. Last season Mercy just missed out on qualifying for the playoffs with a record overall of being 6-7 with a record of being 4-6 in the East Coast Conference. The team had a win streak of five games but didn’t end season as well as it expected. In 2011, Mercy had its best season to date, finishing with a stellar 11-3 record.
