The Maritime College men's lacrosse team put on a dominant second half performance in a road matchup at Ferrum University on Wednesday night as they outscored the Panthers 8-3 in the final 30 minutes to pull out a 13-8 win. 

The Privateers got off to a slow start in the first game of their spring break trip to Virginia as Ferrum jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the opening quarter. Danny Connell (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) put Maritime on the board before the end of the quarter though with an unassisted goal and then followed it up with another unassisted goal early in the second quarter to tie up the game. Mike Leake (Rockville Centre, N.Y./South Side) continued the momentum for the Privateers by netting the next two shots to make it four unanswered goals. Leake's third goal of the second frame made it a 5-3 lead with one minute remaining. However, the Panthers stole the momentum heading into the locker room by scoring two goals in the final minute to tie it up.

Maritime responded at halftime in a big way by putting away four goals in the first six minutes of the third quarter to take control of the game. Collin Flannery (Shoreham, N.Y./Shoreham-Wading River) found Leake in a man-up situation to open up the scoring, then two minutes later it was Flannery who found pay-dirt off an assist from Matt DeMeo (Sayville, N.Y./Sayville). Connell scored his third unassisted goal of the game with 10:12 remaining to make it an 8-5 lead and then DeMeo followed it up with an unassisted goal of his own to make it 9-5. Leake capped off the impressive third quarter performance for the Privateers off an assist from Michael Petty (Port Washington, N.Y./Paul D. Schreiber) to take a 10-6 lead into the final 15 minutes.

Brett Trodden (Putnam Valley, N.Y./Putnam Valley) kept the offensive momentum going early in the fourth quarter with his first goal of the game and then Leake finished up his stellar outing with two more goals to lead Maritime to the 13-8 win.

Leake scored seven goals for the Privateers, good enough for second all-time in program history. Connell chipped in three goals and three assists for a six-point performance, while DeMeo totaled five points on one goal and four assists. Trodden led the way in ground balls with six, while Kevin Buser (/) earned eight face-off wins for Maritime.

"I'm very happy with how we responded out of halftime after giving up two goals in the final minute of the second quarter," said head coach Justin Manjares. "We easily could have let them keep the momentum and control the rest of the game after that, but we came out and played our best offense of the night when it mattered most."

The Privateers continue their road trip in Virginia on Friday as they head to Hampton University for a 2:00 p.m. start.