Men's LAX Stumbles at Mount Ida

NEWTON, Mass. – Mount Ida College honored six members of the men's lacrosse team on Saturday afternoon and then posted a 15-6 win over visiting Mitchell College in a non-conference affair at Alumni Field. 

Erik Berman set a career high with 17 face-off wins and Joe Galante scored a pair of goals to highlight the contributions of the honored players in Saturday's victory. The Mustangs also recognized Shaun Royce, Greg Polish, Paul Studdard and Kyle Fernitz.

Wyatt Sullivan led the way for the Mustangs with four goals and two assists and Tyler McElreath 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 face-off edge and a 45-27 advantage in ground balls. 

For the Mariners, senior Jordan Cook scored three times and freshman Tyler Desances gave them a lead less than two minutes into the game on a pass from Tyler Kradas, 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 scored in that run, as did Shane Flaherty, 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. After he opened the third period with another marker, the Mustangs scored the next five goals to put the game out of reach. Sullivan sandwiched two tallies around an Austin Phillips goal, Matt Hoffman potted his third of the year, and Chad Coehlo 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 and Trevor Hendrix before Cook ended the scoring at 1:16 for the 15-6 final. Steven Koziski caused a game-high four turnovers for the Mustangs while Max Crowley did the same for Mitchell. Crowley also scored his first goal of the season in the contest.

Mitchell did score on three of its six extra-man opportunities while Mount Ida was 0-for-2 with the additional attacker. Sophomore JD LeMay took the loss despite making 19 saves in goal for the Mariners. 

Mitchell (4-6 overall) continues a four-game road trip at Nichols College on Thursday, April 16 at 7 p.m.