MLAX Ends Season with Senior Day Loss to NEC

NEW LONDON, Conn. – The Mitchell College men's lacrosse team saw their season come to an end on Saturday afternoon, falling to New England College 22-4 in New England Collegiate Conference action.

Matt Daley scored six goals and added five assists for the Pilgrims, who led wire to wire and improved their record to 3-11 overall. Thomas Norton added five goals and two assists, while Sam Crary finished with four goals and three assists, and Devon Saeger had a hat trick to go along with two assists.

Four different players scored for the Mariners, as Dylan Kinsella (Waterbury, Conn.), Jon Parra-Tobey (New London, Conn.), Xavier Haney (Montville, Conn.), and Weston Schumacher (Sherborn, Mass.) each found the back of the net. Schumacher added an assist and three ground balls, while Keeano Gonzalez (New London, Conn.) also notched an assist and scooped a game-high 12 ground balls, going 8-28 at the face off position.

The Pilgrims began the afternoon by scoring three quick goals in the first four minutes of play. Schumacher answered with his team leading 14th goal of the season at the 10:54 mark, however Thomas Norton of NEC responded with a goal less than a minute later. Seconds after that goal, Kinsella took a pass from Gonzalez and fired it past the Pilgrim's goalie, but again NEC responded, this time by scoring two unanswered goals to make it 6-2 with 7:13 remaining in the opening frame.

Jon Parra-Tobey potted his sixth goal of the season with five minutes and 42 seconds left in the first quarter, but three Pilgrim goals made the score 9-3 heading into the second frame. Unfortently for the Mariners, they would not score again until late in the fourth stanza, as NEC won the second quarter 4-0 and the third quarter 6-0.

Xavier Haney's 11th goal of the season came with 1:35 on the clock and capped the scoring and the season for the Mariners. The Pilgrims outshot Mitchell 71-25 and forced 33 turnovers. The Mariners were 15-26 on clear attempts and had 23 ground balls.

Ethan Wheeler (Annapolis, M.D.) played all 60 minutes in the cage for Mitchell and finished with 15 saves, giving him 189 on the spring, good for fourth most in a single season in program history. The senior finishes his career with 209 saves, also good for fourth all time in program history.

Connor Almstrom played the first half in net for NEC and made four saves. Jared O'Connor and Caden Rakes each logged a quarter of work in the second half, finishing with four saves and one save respectively.