NEWTON, Mass. – Mount Ida College broke a tie game with three straight goals in the fourth quarter and then held off a pesky Rivier University team to pick up a 14-12 win in their Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) home opener on Wednesday evening at Alumni Field.
Mike Markevich (Westminster, Mass.) scored two goals in the final fifteen minutes to complete his hat trick and help the Mustangs even up their overall (5-5) and conference (1-1) records.
The Raiders fall to 6-4 (1-1 GNAC) despite a game-high four goals from Liam Ryan (Dorchester, Mass.) and 22 saves from senior goalie Clark Plummer (Londonderry, N.H.). Ryan scored three consecutive goals during a 5-0 run in the third quarter that tied the game at 11 as the teams headed to the final period.
Markevich and Lucas Stralka (E. Greenwich, R.I.), who also had a hat trick, put the Mustangs back in front by three goals in the final period, with Rivier managing to score just once, with fifteen seconds left in regulation, as the Mustangs held on for the win.
Markevich got the Mustangs on the board at 11:34 of the first period, and the teams traded the first five goals of the game until Stralka scored on either side of a Jon Berry (Chichester, N.H.) during a 4-0 Mustang run that saw them take a 6-2 lead to open the second quarter.
The Mustangs led 9-6 at half after a pair of second quarter goals by Rivier sophomore Tyler Tambouris (Hooksett, N.H.), who also led the team with seven ground balls and won four face-offs.
They extended that lead to 11-6 with goals by Cole Davis (Chester, N.H.) and Berry, before Rivier struck at 11:44 of the third and took eight and a half minutes to tie the game.
Mount Ida got most of their work at the face-off dot from sophomore Alex Zito (Andover, Conn.), who won 14-28 draws, while Cody Lynch (Salem, N.H.) went 8-13 at the dot for the Raiders, grabbed six ground balls, caused five turnovers and tallied a goal and an assist.
The Mustangs got three assists from Ryan Trinque (E. Greenwich, R.I.), the first goal of the year from Steven Koziski (Peabody, Mass.), who also had four caused turnovers, and a goal and three assists from Chad Coehlo (Salem, Mass.), who extended his team high to 19 assists.
Colby Larsen (Windham, N.H.) went for a pair of goals and an assist in the Rivier loss.
Mount Ida edged their opponents in shots (51-45) and ground balls, 52-40, and went 3-8 with the extra man, while Rivier was just 1-6 on man-up opportunities.
Sophomore Cam Hayward (Derry, N.H.) made 16 saves, 12 of them in the second half, to earn his fifth win of the year.
Mount Ida makes the short road trip to the other side of Newton on Saturday for a 1:00 pm rivalry game against Lasell College.
Rivier looks for better results at the same time when they host Johnson & Wales.