Box Score NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. (Mar. 26, 2016) – The No. 12 Molloy College men's lacrosse team were ditched by the opposition a five-goal stretch between the third and fourth quarters of play as fourth-ranked Merrimack won a 13-9 contest on Saturday (Mar. 26) at Martone-Mejail Field in North Andover, Mass. The Lions have now lost three contests on the season, all of them to teams that were ranked inside the top-10 when Molloy faced them in 2016.
From the early onset, Merrimack (6-1) took control in front of its home fans by scoring the first four goals of the game and nearly shutting out Molloy (6-3) in the opening quarter. The Warriors first got a marker from senior defender Andrew Walsh (Derry, N.H.) in the game's first 61 seconds to take a 1-0 lead, which was extended to 2-0 on a goal by senior midfielder Ryan Poirier (Warwick, R.I.) about two minutes later. Tallies from Jack Trask (Colorado Springs, Colo.) and Max Allen (West Caldwell, N.J.) had the fourth-ranked home side up 4-0 until Molloy finally got on the board with nine seconds to play in the first frame as senior Kevin Teresky (South Huntington, N.Y.) beat keeper Sam Ventresca (Woburn, Mass.) to get the Lions within three goals.
The second quarter started off somewhat similarly as Merrimack found the back of the net within the first minute of action; Trask's second goal of the game put his team up by a score of 5-1 with 14 minutes to play until halftime. Credit the maroon and white, though, for stepping up and rallying back into the contest as the Lions struck for four of the next five goals. Senior middie Peter Clark (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) scored the Lions' first and last goals in the second quarter as markers also came from sophomore Casey Kelly (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) and senior Austin Valenti (Baldwin, N.Y.). Clark's last goal with 1:36 to play in the half sent the teams into the midway point of the affair. Merrimack had a 6-5 lead in the contest through 30 minutes of play.
Whether planned or not, Merrimack found the back of the cage in under a minute yet again to start the second half of action. Walsh was the Warrior who netted his second goal to put his side up by two goals, 7-5 with 14:07 to play in the frame. The maroon and white refused to be denied, getting the next two goals in the contest. First it would be Connor Slane (North Babylon, N.Y.) off a feed from Jon Camposa (Syosset, N.Y.) to bring the Lions back within one goal. Then with 3:39 to play in the quarter, Kelly netted his second goal of the game to even up the score at seven-all. Again, the fourth-ranked Warriors would make a run over the final two minutes of the frame; freshman attacker Michael O'Connell (Sudbury, Mass.) scored two straight goals before sophomore attacker Kyle Stenberg (Annandale, N.J.) ended the third quarter with Merrimack's third consecutive marker as the Warriors entered the final frame up 10-7.
The stretch of goals for the hosts continued into the fourth quarter, and the pattern of goals in the first minute also continued for Merrimack. This time, John Bassett (Clifton Park, N.Y.) tickled the twine in just eight seconds. The Warriors went up by five goals as Allen scored his second goal of the contest with 13:48 to play in regulation. Molloy would attempt a comeback as Tim Steinman (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) scored his third goal of the season to bring the Lions within four at 12-8 with eight minutes remaining. Kelly assisted the marker and then followed with a man-up goal of his own with Camposa distributing to cut the deficit to three goals at 12-9 with five minutes remaining. Merrimack's defense held steadfast however and took home the victory as the Lions went goalless the rest of the way. In the final minute of action, Poirier put one home for good measure to end all scoring chances.
Kelly led the Lions with a four-point day (3 G, 1 A) while Valenti added a goal and two assists. Clark had a two-goal performance as well. Molloy was led on defense by long-stick midfielder Dan Grebe (Farmingville, N.Y.) who had four ground balls, an assist and a caused turnover. Camposa added two assists and two caused turnovers in the game. Sophomore goalie Ryan Toomey (Hicksville, N.Y.) made a career-high 20 saves in net for the maroon and white, but the second-year cage defender also faced 50 total shots as Merrimack dominated all facets of the game.
Leading Merrimack were five players (Allen, O'Connell, Poirier, Trask and Walsh) with two goals apiece; Allen had a team-high four points as he added two assists to his total as well. Bassett scored once and had two assists while Trask also added a helper to get a three-point day. The Warriors torched the maroon and white on face-offs as Blake Boudreau (Amherst, N.H.) went 22-for-24 on draws to hand the ball over to the offense as much as possible. Ventresca stopped 17 shots in net to claim the win for the Warriors.
Molloy will return to action on Saturday (Apr. 2) when the Lions travel to Waterbury, Conn. and complete a four-game road trip against the Eagles of Post University. First face-off is scheduled for 3 p.m.
