The Maritime College women's lacrosse team earned one of their biggest wins in program history by defeating the United States Merchant Marine Academy on Saturday afternoon by a score of 11-10. The Mariners had won the last two Skyline Conference Championships, and had won five consecutive matchups against the Privateers dating back to the 2015 season when Maritime pulled out an 11-9 win at home.
The Privateers had not played a lacrosse game since March 8 of 2020 after their first four games of this season were postponed, but they came out firing against USMMA, who defeated Maritime last year in the Skyline Conference semi-finals 23-8.
Sara Wright (East Islip, NY/East Islip) and MacKenzie Fabiani got the scoring started for Maritime as they netted two unassisted goals in the first half to tie the game at 2-2 with 16 minutes remaining.
Nicole Johnson (Farmingville, NY/Sachem East) then started her dominant performance in the game with three straight goals to bring the Privateers lead to 5-3 before freshman
Avery Jillson Neuwirth (Croton on Hudson, NY) put away the final goal of the half to make it 6-3 heading into the second.
The Mariners weren't going to let Maritime walk away with the win and they came out strong in the second half as they quickly cut the advantage to 7-5. After trading goals to the 15 minute-mark, USMMA finally cut the lead to one goal at 9-8. However, the Privateers wouldn't let them tie it up as
Jessica Fraccalvieri (Sayville, NY) and Johnson scored two late second half goals to maintain the lead. The Mariners scored with 7:28 remaining in the game to make it 11-10, but the Maritime defense held strong and wouldn't let them net the equalizer. Maritime did a fanastic job of limiting USMMA's opportunities as they only allowed two shots in the final 7:28 of play, with one going wide left and goalkeeper
Elizabeth Pomaro (Farmingville, NY/Newfield) saving the other.
Johnson led the way for the Privateers in "The Sound Shootout" with seven goals on 10 shots, while Jillson Neuwirth, Fabiani, Wright, and Fraccalvieri chipping in the other four goals. Wright tallied the lone assist for Maritime in the game. Johnson finished an impressive 5-6 on free position shots. Pomaro earned the win in goal behind 11 saves on 32 shots faced.
"I'm so incredibly proud of this team today," said Interim Head Coach
Kerri Handras. "After last season was cut short for them and then our first four games getting postponed we were all just excited to finally be playing. We knew it was going to be a tough challenge to play USMMA first, but everybody worked extremely hard all pre-season and that hard work paid off because they put together a great game."
The Privateers will look to keep the momentum going as they return to action on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. where they will travel to Manhattanville College.
