The Maritime College men's lacrosse team picked up its first win since 2008 against the United States Merchant Marine Academy in dominating fashion as they took out the visiting Mariners 19-9 on Wednesday night in the Captain John Hagedorn Cup matchup. The victory improved the Privateers to 9-3 overall and 3-0 in Skyline Conference play.
Maritime wasted no time jumping out in front of USMMA as they netted the first three goals of the game within the first five minutes to take a 3-0 lead. The Privateers went on to tack on two more goals and move to the second quarter of action with a 5-2 advantage.
Mike Leake (Rockville Centre, N.Y./South Side),
Danny Connell (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford),
Michael Petty (Port Washington, N.Y./Paul D. Schreiber),
Matt DeMeo (Sayville, N.Y./Sayville), and
Brett Trodden (Putnam Valley, N.Y./Putnam Valley) were the five goal scorers for Maritime in the first period.
The second quarter continued to heavily favor the Privateers as they locked down the Mariners defensively and scored four answered goals in the first ten minutes of the period. However, USMMA started their comeback bid by scoring the final three goals before going into halftime. Maritime held a 9-5 lead going into halftime, but needed to get some momentum back early in the third quarter to regain control of the game.
Leake and
Mike Gomes (Dix Hills, N.Y./Commack) got the Privateers back on track to start the second half with back-to-back goals to bring the lead up to 11-5. With the defense continuing to stifle the Mariners behind senior goalkeeper
Justin Weigold (Huntington, N.Y./Huntington), Maritime went on to dominate the third quarter of play and win the quarter by a margin of 5-1.
Garrett Vincent (Tequesta, Fla./Jupiter Community), Leake and Connell scored the final three goals of the period to bring the score to 14-6 heading into the final period of play.
Sophomore attacker
Matt DeMeo (Sayville, N.Y./Sayville) kept the offense rolling in the fourth quarter as he led the way with three goals in the final period. After being defeated 19-9 last year by USMMA, the Privateers went on to match that same score and walk away with the Hagedorn Cup and their first win against the Mariners since 2008.
DeMeo continued his impressive sophomore campaign with a team-high five goals while Trodden chipped in a game-high seven points with four goals and three assists.
Kevin Buser (Babylon, NY) picked up an impressive 19 out of 31 faceoffs in the game and added a team-high nine ground balls. Weigold, who was questionable to start tonight's game, stepped up and made some crucial saves as he stopped 11 shots on goal from USMMA.
Maritime will head into its final stretch of the season with three Skyline Conference games remaining against St. Joseph's Long Island, Farmingdale St. and Mount Saint Mary. The Privateers travel to St. Joseph's Long Island on Saturday a for a 1 p.m. start.
