Mercy Men’s Lacrosse has gotten off to a hot start to the season winning their first three games by nine points or more. It comes as no shock as the Mavericks came into this season as the favorite to win the ECC title, and so far, they haven’t disappointed. The Mavs are second in goals scored among the ECC after only playing in three games. The Mavs are now the 8th ranked team in the country among Division 2 teams with more time to get higher in the rankings.

The Mavs went on a two-game road trip starting last Saturday when they took down Georgian Court University 17-4. Stand-out sophomore TJ Heyder recorded a hat trick while receiving three points off his three goals. The biggest storyline from Saturday’s victory was the Mavs’ domination on defense, only giving up four goals to the Lions and shutting down star player Devin Bell who didn’t record a single goal.  Goalkeeper Tommy Umano received his second win on the season off four saves and only gave up two goals after being pulled later in the game during garbage time.

Dominic Scorcia had a pair of goals on Saturday and received four points off of two goals and two assists. However, the man who has been leading the Mavs through their offensive surges is Junior Brady Kearnan, who scored a hat trick and received six points off of three goals and three assists. Kearnan keeps asserting his offensive dominance as he is third in the conference in goals and fifth in assists.

Wednesday was the same story as the Mavs ran over the Molloy College Lions 16-7. This was another game where the Mavericks started off hot on offense as Tommy McPartland scored the first goal in the first four minutes of the game. The Mavericks would end up finishing the first period of play up by five unanswered goals accompanied by Brady Kearnan, Dominic Scorcia, and TJ Heyder. By the end of the first half, the Mavs were up 8-2 over the Lions. The Mavs would score eight more goals in the second and would dominate on the defensive side as well.

Dominic Scorcia leads the ECC in assists and continues to be one of the leaders of this Mavericks team. Scorica is having a stellar season so far but knows that there is always room for improvement throughout the season. “There’s always room for improvement for every single guy on the roster from the top scorer to the last bench guy. But me personally there are times where I force the ball into different areas that shouldn’t be done and I have to clean those up.” Scorcia currently has six goals and nine assists through their first three games. Scorcia had back-to-back games with a pair of goals and has the third-most goals on the team behind Heyder and Kearnan.

But you can’t just talk about the Mavericks’ offense without talking about their stellar defense. Junior goalkeeper Tommy Umano is going into every game in the net like it’s his last. Umano has a perfect 3-0 record this season with a total of 17 saves. Umano preaches that focus as a goalkeeper is key and how even knowing he is doing well he can still improve. “It’s just important to stay focused day in and day out. Personally, I feel like I can definitely elevate my game to a higher level, but overall as a team, we are looking great and are trying to improve each game.” Umano leads the ECC in save percentage (60.7) and goals-against only giving up 11 goals this season.

The Mavericks look ahead to this weekend when they face 4-1 Roberts Wesleyan College. Like the Mavericks, the Redhawks have a dominant offense led by senior Hunter Lemieux who is the current goal leader in the ECC with 23 goals. Matt Gademske is Lemieux’s robin and is second in goals in the ECC with 14. This will be the Mavericks’ biggest test so far this season as the Redhawks are right behind them in the standings, and they are poised to try and knock off the eighth-ranked Mavericks.

Umano is confident about facing the highest-scoring offense in the conference and has trust in his defense to get the job done. “I have a lot of trust in my defense going into tomorrow’s game. As long as we execute the game plan that our coach has set for us, we will be successful.”

No fans are permitted to go see the game on the Dobbs Ferry Campus, fans can stream the game on Mercyathletics.com.