#2 Men’s Lacrosse Eyes Fourth Straight Win during Saturday Trip to Southern New Hampshire

Date	Saturday, April 7, 2018 (1 p.m.)
Matchup	#2 Merrimack (7-1, 4-1 NE10) Southern N.H. (3-5, 1-4 NE10)
Location	Penmen Stadium Manchester, N.H.
Multimedia	Live Stats // Video
Social	@MerrimackMLAX // Instagram

 
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – The No. 2 Merrimack College men's lacrosse team will take on another New Hampshire-based conference foe tomorrow when it travels to Southern New Hampshire University on Saturday (April 7) afternoon. Game time from Penmen Stadium is 1 p.m.

Inside the Series:

• Merrimack has won six straight games in the all-time series against SNHU and is 10-1 against the Penmen over the last 11 games.
• Last year, Merrimack topped Southern New Hampshire twice, first by a 15-9 score during the regular season before a come-from-behind, 13-10 victory over the Penmen in the first round of last year's NE10 Tournament.
• SNHU's last win in the series was on April 10, 2012, in Manchester (7-6).

Last Time Out:

• Second-ranked Merrimack set the tone early and often by scoring the game's first seven goals and 11 of the first 12 on the way to another convincing victory, this one by a 17-9 margin, over visiting Saint Anselm College in Tuesday night Northeast-10 Conference action at Merrimack Stadium. Click here for full recap.

Poll Watch:

• Merrimack enters the week ranked No. 2 in the USILA Coaches' Poll. It was No. 1 during a four-week span and has been no lower than second all year.
• As is usually the case, the Warriors will face plenty of the nation's top programs this year, as six other schools that are on Merrimack's schedule are also ranked in this week's poll.
• The Warriors have already NYIT (ranked eighth when they played), LIU Post (12) and Le Moyne (2); they are yet to face Pace (5), Adelphi (6) and Saint Anselm (20).

'Mack Facts:

• Merrimack (7-1, 4-1 NE10) ranks third in the NE10 in scoring offense (13.63) and defense (7.75) and also boasts the best man-down defense in the country (88.5%) and 10^th-best man-up offense (43.8%).
• Freshman Sean Black (41 points) leads all Warriors on the offensive front with 16 goals and 25 assists. He ranks second in the league in assists and first in overall scoring. His 3.13 assists per game figure ranks second nationally and scoring average (5.13) ranks sixth.
• Sophomore Charlie Bertrand, meanwhile, is the league leader in goals scored (28) ranks tied for first in the league with 28 goals in just seven games, ranking second nationally in goals per game (4.00).
• Senior Blake Boudreau has won 125-of-179 on the X (.698) as Merrimack's primary faceoff man, ranking sixth nationally and first in the NE10 in faceoff win percentage. He ranks sixth nationally and first in the NE10 averaging 9.63 ground balls per game.
• Senior James Bassett, reigning USILA Defensive Player of the Year, leads the Warriors with nine caused turnovers, while senior long midfielder Eric Coburn and junior Ryan Burke are close behind with eight and seven, respectively.
• In net, freshman Peter Brown has started the last six games and has been solid, posting a 6.35 goals against average and .500 save percentage in that span.
• Merrimack has won the last 19 games it has scored 10 or more goals in; its last loss when posting a double-digit scoring total was in double overtime against Le Moyne (12-11) on March 18, 2017.

Scouting Southern New Hampshire:

• SNHU (3-5, 1-4 NE10) enters the weekend coming off a 15-10 win over Bentley. It allows 13.50 goals per game (11^th/NE10) while averaging 11.00 per game on the offensive front (7^th).
• Senior Zach Tanner's 21 points are most for the Penmen on 12 goals and a team-high nine asasists. Classmate Corey Cairo leads SNHU with 14 goals.
• Andrew Liu has gone 121-of-206 on the face-off X (.587) and leads the team with 59 ground balls, while Tyler Mello (11) and Nolan Isabella (10) have double-digit caused turnovers.
• Three goalies have started at least one game for SNHU; senior Michael Brawley has the most action with a 2-2 record in four starts/six games and a 12.12 GAA/.465 SV% in that span.

Inside the Matchup:

#1 Merrimack (6-1, 2-1 NE10)	Category	SNHU (3-5, 1-4 NE10)
3/31 vs. AIC (W, 17-4) 4/3 vs. Saint Anselm (W, 17-9)	Recent Games	3/31 at Assumption (L, 16-7) 4/3 Bentley (W, 15-10)
13.63	Scoring Offense	11.00
7.75	Scoring Defense	13.50
43.8%	Man-Up Offense	35.1%
88.5%	Man-Down Defense	66.7%
109/329 (.331)	Goals/Shot Attempts (Sh. Pct.)	88-332 (.265)
34.00	Ground Balls	31.13
14.00	Turnovers	17.13
6.75	Caused Turnovers	7.38
69.3%	Faceoff Pct.	58.6%
88.4%	Clearing Pct.	86.1%

 
Up Next
Merrimack returns home to play host to Franklin Pierce next Wednesday (April 11) at 4 p.m.