Box Score

MADISON, N.J. (March 1, 2014) – The Maritime men's lacrosse team lost for the first time the season, falling to the Centenary Cyclones by an 11-5 score on Saturday afternoon at Robert T. Shields Field.
 
Centenary opened up a 4-0 lead through the first 13:45 of the opening period as Steve Orsini of the Cyclones was responsible for three of the team's goals. With 33 seconds left in the quarter freshman Zachary Pace (Monroe Township, N.J./Monroe Township) picked up a ground ball off a missed Maritime shot, and put home the rebound to trim the lead to 4-1.
 
In the second quarter, Orsini opened up the period with his fourth goal of the contest to give the Cyclones a 5-1 lead. Pace then picked up his second of the game just over two minutes later to pull Maritime within three at 5-2. With less than five minutes left in the period, Centenary regained its four-goal advantage.
 
Several possessions later, Centenary was assessed with a slashing penalty to give Maritime a man-up situation, which freshman Corey Cristallo (Severna Park, Md./Severna Park) capitalized on with his first career goal on a pass from classmate Colin McCoy (Glen Allen, Va./Greenport (N.Y.)). The half ended with Maritime trailing its hosts by a 6-3 score.
 
In the third quarter Centenary controlled much of the early play as the Cyclone lead increased to 9-3 halfway through the period.  Pace collected his third goal of the game with 3:59 left in the period, but the Maritime offense was unable to muster any other goals in the period and headed into the final quarter down 9-4.
 
The Cyclones began the final stanza with two goals in the first three minutes. After Maritime cleared the ball with 10:26 left in the game, the Privateers had several shots that were off target but backed up nicely to retain possession.
 
Sophomore Matt Hayes (Baldwin, N.Y./Baldwin) was given the chance next on a shot and made the most of it as he rattled the cage for Maritime's fifth goal of the game. Neither side was able to score through the remainder of the contest as Centenary held on for the 11-5 victory.
 
The game was relatively close in terms of shots as Centenary had a slim 36-33 edge. Ground balls were in favor of Maritime at a 29-26 clip, while faceoffs and turnovers were even between the two sides. The major difference in the game was in penalties as the Privateers were flagged nine times, to the Cyclones' four penalties.

Sophomore Jonathan Strezenec (Merrick, N.Y./Calhoun) led the Privateer defense with five groundballs and three caused turnovers. Hayes finished the game 9-for-16 from the faceoff-X and picked up a game-high seven groundballs. For Centenary, Orsini tallied five goals, while Joshua Caven picked up a hat trick himself, with three scores.
 
In goal, freshman Kieran Clark (Rockville Centre, N.Y./South Side) suffered the loss after picking up three saves in 39:34 of action on the field. Sophomore Mike Arnold (Plainedge, N.Y./Plainedge) also saw some time and registered four saves in just over 20 minutes. Picking up the win was Alex Malecki, who made five saves for the Cyclones and allowed three goals in the first half of the game. Kevin Switzer came on for the second half and made a game-high six saves and allowed a pair of goals.
 
Maritime (1-1, 0-0 Skyline) will head back to Madison, N.J. on Wednesday evening to take on the FDU-Florham Devils for a 7 p.m. start at Robert T. Shields Field.

Centenary (1-0, 0-0 Colonial States) will have a week off before returning to Hackettstown, N.J. to take on Oswego for a 1 p.m. start.