Dobbs Ferry, N.Y. - Powered by a game-high eight points from senior Brady Kearnan (Courtice, Ontario/Newberry College), the No. 1 seeded Mercy College men's lacrosse team earned a 15-10 win over No. 2 seeded Frostburg State University in the East Coast Conference (ECC) Men's Lacrosse Championship Final on Saturday afternoon at Mercy Field.
Senior Sean Rigley (Pleasant Hill, Calif./Onondaga CC) was named the Championship's Most Outstanding Player in a ceremony after the game.
The Mavericks (14-1) have won 11 games in a row and win their third straight ECC Championship. Mercy now awaits a possible NCAA Tournament berth with the selection show set for tomorrow night at 7:30 p.m. at NCAA.com. The Bobcats (11-8) fall in their first ECC Championship Final.
Kearnan had three goals and five assists and recorded his 100th career assist and junior TJ Heyder (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y./Comsewogue) had a game-high four goals with one assist. Graduate student Dominic Scorcia (Franklin Square, N.Y./Carey) had three goals and two assists and recorded his 100th career assist. Senior Jack Gibbons (North Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) and graduate student Matt Eccles (Syracuse, N.Y./University at Albany) both scored two goals and graduate student Sean Makar (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Binghamton University) had a goal and an assist. Juniors Robert Guglielmo (Bellmore, N.Y./Mepham) and Justin Gerdvil (Northport, N.Y./Northport), and sophomore Jason Kuehner (Hackettstown, N.J./Hackettstown) each had an assist. Gerdvil added four ground balls and two caused turnovers. Rigley had two caused turnovers and senior Jack Kipnes (Wantagh, N.Y./MacArthur) had five ground balls, recording his 100th career ground ball in the game. Junior PJ Argiros (Levittown, N.Y./Nassau CC) went 10-for-18 on faceoffs with seven ground balls. Senior Tommy Umano (Seaford, N.Y./Seaford) made a career-high 19 saves to earn the win.
Frostburg State was led by Tanner Donaldson who had a team-high four points on three goals and one assist. Kevin Reuther made 11 saves to take the loss.
Mercy jumped out to a 1-0 lead at the 12:43 mark after a Gibbons goal from Scorcia. The Bobcats responded with three straight goals to give Frostburg State a 3-1 lead with 7:09 on the clock. Makar and Kearnan found the back of the net to close out the quarter, tying the game at 3-3 after one quarter.
Scorcia made it 4-3 after Kuehner won the opening faceoff of the second quarter and found Scorcia who put the ball into the net. Heyder followed that up with back-to-back goals to give the Mavericks a 6-3 lead with 9:34 left in the half. The Bobcats scored the final three goals of the half to send the teams into halftime tied at 6-6.
Eccles and Owen McCallum traded goals to open the third quarter, making it 7-7 with 13:36 left in the quarter. Heyder, Eccles, and Kearnan rattled off three straight goals to give the Mavericks a 10-7 lead with 9:21 remaining in the quarter. Donaldson made it 10-8, but Kearnan, Scorcia, and Gibbons ended the quarter with three straight goals to give Mercy a 13-8 lead after three quarters.
Bubba Love opened the scoring in the fourth quarter to make it 13-9. However, Heyder and Scorcia answered back with consecutive goals to give Mercy their largest lead of the game, 15-9, with 7:36 remaining. A late Frostburg State goal would not be enough and the Mavericks came away with the 15-10 win to win their third straight ECC Championship.
Frostburg State held a 47-43 edge in shots and Mercy held a 42-36 edge in ground balls. Mercy went 15-for-28 on faceoffs.
Provided by the Mercy Sports Information Department.
