The Maritime College men's lacrosse team made history on Saturday night as they defeated the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) 16-13 to win the program's first ever Skyline Conference title. The top-seeded Privateers finished the year undefeated in Skyline play and with a program-best, 14 wins. After picking up 18 saves in the championship game, senior goalkeeper Justin Weigold (Huntington, N.Y./Huntington) was named the Most Outstanding Player of the tournament.

After giving up the opening goal of the game, the Privateers dominated the first quarter and took control of the game by scoring eight goals in the first period. Bryan Keegan (Lake Grove, N.Y./Sachem North) opened up the scoring for the Privateers with an unassisted goal, then Mike Leake (Rockville Centre, N.Y./South Side) gave Maritime a huge momentum boost by finding the back of the net in a man-down situation. Fourteen seconds later, Brett Boisits (Glen Head, NY/North Shore) picked up the ground ball off the faceoff and took it all the way to the net for the Privateers third consecutive goal.

Maritime continued to dominate on both sides of the field in the first quarter as they netted four goals in the final five minutes of the period to take an 7-2 lead into the second quarter. Thirty seconds into the next period, Leake scored again, this time off an assist from Danny Connell (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) as the Privateers took their largest lead of the game at 8-2. However, the Mariners weren't going to back down in the championship game and scored four unanswered goals. With momentum on USMMA's side, Matt DeMeo (Sayville, N.Y./Sayville) gave Maritime a boost heading into the locker room with a goal off an assist from Leake for a 9-6 advantage at halftime.

The Mariners continued to battle and kept the lead at two goals until six minutes remaining in the third quarter when the Privateers were finally able to break through and score three straight times. Michael Rodriguez scored back-to-back unassisted goals for USMMA to bring the score back to 13-10 with less than a minute left to play. Danny Connell (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) and Bryan Keegan (Lake Grove, N.Y./Sachem North) weren't going to let the Mariners get the last goal of the quarter though as Connell found Keegan in front of the net for a goal with three seconds remaining on the clock.

Holding a four-goal lead entering the final 15 minutes of the game, goals from Brett Trodden (Putnam Valley, N.Y./Putnam Valley) and Collin Flannery (Shoreham, N.Y./Shoreham-Wading River) sealed the game for Maritime and they were able to win the program's first ever Skyline Conference title with a 16-13 win.

Leake and Keegan led the Privateers with five points each and seven other players recorded at least one point in the win. Michael Petty (Port Washington, N.Y./Paul D. Schreiber) led the way in ground balls with six, while the tournaments Most Outstanding Player, Justin Weigold (Huntington, N.Y./Huntington), tallied 18 saves.

Maritime will find out who they play in the NCAA tournament tomorrow, Sunday May 5 at 9 p.m. during the live selection show. Check out the post-game press conferences from both teams and highlights from the game below!