NEWTON, Mass. – Mount Ida College honored six members of their men's lacrosse team on Saturday afternoon and then won their Senior Day game 15-6 over visiting Mitchell College in a non-conference affair at Alumni Field.
Senior Erik Berman (Montclair, N.J.) set a new career high with 17 face-off wins and Joe Galante (Framingham, Mass.) scored a pair of goals to highlight the contributions of the honored players in Saturday's victory.
The Mustangs also recognized Shaun Royce (S. Windsor, Conn.), Greg Polish (Bow, N.H.), Paul Studdard (West Haven, Conn.), and Kyle Fernitz (Northbrook, Ill.), who had four ground balls in the win.
Sophomore Wyatt Sullivan (Arlington, Mass.) led the way for the Mustangs with four goals and two assists and classmate Tyler McElreath (Upton, Mass.) made five saves in net to improve to 4-2 on the season.
The Mustangs outscored the Mariners 5-2 in each of the first and third periods and outshot their opponents 57-21 in the game, along with a 19-5 faceoff edge and a 45-27 advantage in ground balls.
For the Mariners, senior Jordan Cook (Groton, Conn.) scored three times and freshman Tyler Desances (Norwalk, Conn.) gave them a lead less than two minutes into the game on a pass from Tyler Kradas (Kensington, Conn.), who had a goal and an assist in the game.
A 7-1 spurt by the Mustangs that saw Galante score both of his goals and Sullivan open his account quickly shifted the momentum in the contest. Peter Hardy (Tyngsboro, Mass.) scored in that run, as did Shane Flaherty (Halifax, Mass.), who notched his first of two goals.
Cook ended the second period with his first of the game to send the teams to the break with Mount Ida ahead 7-3 and he opened the third period with another marker but the Mustangs scored the next five goals to put the game out of reach. Sullivan sandwiched two tallies around an Austin Phillips (Haverhill, Mass.) goal, Matt Hoffman (Brewster, N.Y.) potted his third goal of the year, and Chad Coehlo (Salem, Mass.) found the back of the net in a game in which he also had three assists.
Mount Ida scored the first three goals of the fourth quarter behind Flaherty, Marcus Donahue (Braintree, Mass.) and Trevor Hendrix (Grafton, Mass.) before Cook ended the scoring at 1:16 for the 15-6 final.
Junior Steven Koziski (Peabody, Mass.) caused a game-high four turnovers for the Mustangs, while Max Crowley (Seal Beach, Calif.) did the same for Mitchell, while also scoring a goal.
Mitchell did score on three of their six extra man opportunities, while Mount Ida was 0-2 with the additional attacker.
Sophomore JD LeMay (Lagrangeville, N.Y.) took the loss despite making 19 saves in goal for the Mariners.
The Mustangs, now winners of seven straight games, will play a huge Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) game at home on Tuesday afternoon when local rivals Lasell College comes to town for a 3:30 pm game that may decide who gets a bye in the GNAC tournament.
Mitchell (4-6) continues a four game road trip when they travel to Nichols on Thursday, April 16th for a 7:00 pm non-conference game.