ERIE, Pa. – The third-ranked Mercyhurst men's lacrosse took an early 1-0 lead in the first, but then allowed five straight and never took another lead as the eighth-ranked Mercy College Mavericks survived a late Laker fleury to hold on for a 15-13 win at Saxon Stadium on Tuesday afternoon in non-conference action.

Mercyhurst wasted little time getting on the board as Caleb Kueber took a feed from Bryce Johnson and beat Tommy Umano for the 1-0 edge 57-seconds in.  The Mavericks played "make it take it" lacrosse over the next eight minutes as Andrew Calabria, Jack Gibbons, Robert Guglielmo, Brady Kearnan, and Dominic Scorcia each beat Cole Pelicano to take a 5-1 advantage with 6:53 to go.  Nathan Grenon setup Zach Lorenz to stop the run, before Nicholas Mabe and Bryce Johnson also tallied to close within 5-4 after one.

Scorcia notched his second to make it 6-4 with 1:40 gone.  After Bo Columbus won the ensuing draw Johnson fired a shot off the mark, but Peyton Manko found Timothy McMullen who ripped the twine cut the margin to 6-5.  Brady Kearnan and Grenon exchanged unassisted markers to hold the gap at one, 7-6.  Kearnan got called for offsides at the 6:07 mark, which resulted in a man-up marker from Mabe to level the score.  However, Scorcia to Kearnan gave the visitors the 8-7 edge through 30-minutes.

It took over three minutes before Jake Fitzgerald gave the Mavericks a 9-7 lead.  Kueber buried the rock for the second time on the game off a feed from Johnson with 4:31 elapsed.  The Lakers once again pulled even when the long-pole of Haden Bates fired a shot past Umano making it 9-9.  Mercy ended the quarter with two consecutive goals from Kearnan and Scorcia to hold an 11-9 advantage after three. 

Scorcia capped off a pass from Gibbons to stretch the lead to 12-9, 45 ticks into the final frame.  Grenon and Scorcia exchanged markers, before the visitors would score two more times to claim their largest advantage of the game at 15-10 with 2:34 to play.  However, the Lakers would not go down quietly as Devin Pipher netted three goals, but ultimately it was not enough as the Mavericks claimed the final faceoff of the game with 12-seconds remaining to earn the final horn.

Team Stat Pack
Shot Attempts - Hurst, 49 / MC, 27 
Shots on Goal - Hurst, 25 / MC, 21
Clears - Hurst, 12-14 / MC, 18-29
Face Offs - Hurst, 17-31 / MC, 14-31
Ground Balls - Hurst, 38 / MC, 36
Turnovers - Hurst, 19 / MC, 23
Extra Man Opp. - Hurst, 1-3 / MC, 2-4

Mercyhurst Individual Stat Leaders
Points – Grenon, Kueber and Pipher (4), Johnson (3)
Goals – Pipher (3), Grenon, Kueber and Mabe (2)
Assists – Grenon, Johnson and Kueber (2)
Face Off – Columbus (15-23), Doran (2-8)
Saves - Pellicano (6)

Mercy Individual Stat Leaders
Goals – Scorcia (6), Kearnan (4) 
Face Offs – Rey (14-31)
Saves - Umano (12) 

On Deck
The Lakers will not have long to stew on the loss as they return to action tomorrow at 2pm when they host Davis & Elkins College in Great Midwest Athletic Conference play.