North Andover MA.
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The Merrimack Men's Lacrosse team overcame a slow start with a strong second half as they eventually cruised to victory over the College of the Holy Cross Crusaders by a score of 14-9 on a cool dry night at Duane Stadium.
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Merrimack: 14 Holy Cross: 9
Merrimack: (2-0) | Holy Cross: (0-2)
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Merrimack jumped on the board first as
KJ Delane fired them in front just under four minutes into the contest, but Holy Cross would take control for the majority of the rest of the quarter as they scored five straight times to take a four goal advantage, but late in the quarter the Warriors would put themselves right back in the contest with goals from
Grant Laman and
Jack Rooney to cut the lead in half at quarters end.
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To start the second quarter, the Warriors would begin with trading goals with two by Holy Cross but with two of their own from
Brian Russell and the Warriors would remain down two at the half.
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In the third,
Brian Russell's great game would continue as he would score twice in a minute to tie the game up at seven and
Jack Rooney would give the Warriors the lead for the first time since the first quarter shortly after. The Warriors would score two more times in the quarter to take a 10-7 lead into the final 15 minutes.
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In the fourth, the Warriors would finish out their six unanswered goal run as
Kasey Mongillo would score just over two minutes in, Holy Cross would cut the lead back to three momentarily but
Drew Hailey would score twice and
Jack Rooney would finish his hat trick to put the game away, with Holy Cross getting a consolation goal in the final 90 seconds.
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Notes and Numbers:
Brian Russell and
Jack Rooney both had hat tricks with Russell ending the night with four goals and Rooney with three.
Rooney also led the team in assists with two.
Allyn French won 18 faceoffs on the night.
Henry Vogt made 11 saves in the win.
Up Next:
The Warriors continue their homestand as the face the Long Island University Sharks at 1 PM.
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