Merchant Marine - 15, Farmingdale State - 8
Farmingdale, N.Y. - The Farmingdale State men's lacrosse team played host to Merchant Marine in a Skyline Conference game this evening and fell, 15-8. FSC suffered their first conference loss of the season and now stand at 10-4 overall and 3-1 in Skyline play.
Prior to the start of tonight's game, seniors Sean Gannon (Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y.), James Ragland (Seaford, N.Y.), Dan Wood (East Meadow, N.Y.), Doug Hellberg (Wantagh, N.Y.), Shane Clark (Oceanside, N.Y.), Greg Palma (Islip Terrace, N.Y.), Dan Panzarino (Oceanside, N.Y.) and Brandon Felice (Smithtown, N.Y.) were each honored as they played in their final regular season home game.
After the Rams fell behind 3-0 early in the first quarter, junior attack AJ Sandorfi (Lynbrook, N.Y.) and Ragland connected with back-to-back man-up scores for FSC to cut the deficit to only one. With 3:47 left on the clock in the first, Farmingdale State tied the game at 3-3 after junior attack Jake Satterley (West Babylon, N.Y.) tallied an unassisted goal.
Trailing 5-3 with 24 seconds remaining, Sandorfi closed the quarter with a goal off the feed from sophomore midfielder John Feiner (Farmingdale, N.Y.).
Only 1:37 into the second quarter, Sandorfi tallied his third goal of the game to even the score at 5-5. After junior attacks Liam Connors (Bellmore, N.Y.) and Mike Morsberger (Catonsville, Md.) registered goals for Merchant Marine (8-4, 3-1), Ragland followed with a man-up score at the 10:36 mark. The Mariners notched the final two goals of the quarter and took a 9-6 advantage into the break. In the first half, the Rams were 3-for-3 on man-up scoring opportunities.
In the third quarter, Merchant Marine outscored FSC 6-0 as both Connors and Jack Renard (San Clemente, Calif.) had a pair of goals and Matt Kane (Lewes, Del.) and Tristan Kelehan (Elkridge, Md.) added one apiece to increase the Merchant Marine lead to 15-6.
Sandorfi scored both fourth quarter goals but Farmingdale State fell, 15-8.
Sandorfi finished the night with six points on a game-high five goals and one assist, while Ragland scored twice. Sophomore defender Brodie Culkin (West Islip, N.Y.) picked up a team-leading five ground balls and Felice caused a game-high three turnovers.
For Merchant Marine, Connors scored four goals, had three assists and caused three turnovers, while Morsberger recorded five points on three goals and two assists. Junior midfielder Kyle Buser (Babylon, N.Y.) also grabbed a game-high 10 ground balls in the victory for the Mariners.
Wood stopped 12 shots in goal in the first three quarters for Farmingdale State, while Palma had three saves in the fourth.
The Rams next will travel to first-place Maritime for a Skyline Conference game on Friday, April 26th at 7:00 p.m.
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