#7 Men's Lacrosse Heads to Finals After 14-3 Victory over Adelphi
NORTH ANDOVER, MA – The seventh-ranked Merrimack men's
lacrosse team defeated Adelphi University 14-3 Friday night in the
Northeast-10 Semifinals to advance to its second straight
conference championship against top-ranked Le Moyne College on
Sunday.
The Warriors (12-3) and the Dolphins (14-0) will battle once
again for the conference title Sunday afternoon at 12 p.m. in
Syracuse, NY. The game will be webcast live at northeast10.tv.
The Panthers actually led 2-0 early, but Merrimack rattled off
six unanswered first-half goals from six different scorers to lead
6-2 at the half.
Jordan Tiger
(Ridgefield, CT), Corey Lunney (Little
Silver, NJ) and Bryan MacPhie
(Scarborough, ME) each tallied a goal and an assist in the
first half, with Tiger getting the Warriors on the board with his
first goal of the season. Greg Melaugh
(Billerica, MA), Nick Vazquez
(Haverhill, MA), Brad McAdam (Neshanic
Station, NJ) and Lunney made it 5-2 with four goals 3:48
apart, while MacPhie rounded out the first half with an unassisted
tally, his 16th of the season.
The hosts netted eight of the nine second-half goals, while
Lunney finishing with a game-high three, giving the Northeast-10
Rookie of the Year 45 goals on the season.
MacPhie, Vazquez, and Michael Balbuena
(Falmouth, MA) each tallied two, while freshman Joe Lamagna
(Andover, MA) added a late goal, his third of the year.
“We played well as a team and really took over after the
two early goals,” said head coach Mike Morgan, who has guided
Merrimack to at least the conference semifinals in each of his
three seasons. “We earned the chance to go back to Syracuse
and hopefully come home with a championship.”
Merrimack won 12-of-21 faceoffs, including all five in the first
quarter and forced 25 turnovers, seven off clearing attempts.
Cory
Spinale (Wakefield, MA) made 11 saves in the victory,
as Merrimack dominated the shots, outshooting Adelphi 61-25.
Merrimack has lost just six times in the last two seasons, four
of them to Le Moyne, including last year's conference championship
and NCAA Semifinals.
Adelphi, who entered Friday's game winners of eight straight,
concludes its season 10-5 overall, including two losses to
Merrimack in North Andover.
