Farmingdale, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Men's Lacrosse team opened Skyline Conference play on Saturday afternoon and suffered a 16-11 road loss at Farmingdale State. Junior Dylan De Meo (Franklin Square, N.Y.) led the team with six points and four caused turnovers.
 
Mount Saint Mary never led in the game and did not get on the board until Billy Holland (Pearl River, N.Y.) scored at the 7:45 mark of the second period to bring the Knights to within 5-1. His tally was the first of back-to-back goals for the Knights as Tristan Earle (Millrift, Pa.) scored just over two minutes later to get the Knights to within three with 5:23 left before halftime.
 
The Rams went on to score two of the final three goals of the second stanza, including a Tyler Rifice goal with 16 seconds left before halftime to carry a 7-3 lead into the intermission.
 
The Rams finished the first 30 minutes with a slim 22-20 edge in overall shots and an 11-9 advantage in shots on goal. Farmingdale State also held the edge in first half groundballs at 20-17 and each team scored once with the man advantage before the break.
 
Saturday's third quarter featured 10 goals with the two sides splitting the tallies. The Knights pulled to within 12-9 after a three goal run that included a man-up tally from De Meo, but could not get closer than three goals the rest of the way. Consecutive man-up goals from Earle in the middle stages of the fourth quarter got the Mount to within 14-11, but two Ryan Wieczorek goals for Farmingdale State in the final 3:11 closed out the win for the Rams.
 
De Meo finished the game with three goals and assisted on three others to push his team lead in points to 29. He added six groundballs in the game and caused four turnovers for the Knights. With his scoring output on Saturday, he stands just 11 points from tying the all-time points record at Mount Saint Mary.
 
Earle closed out a strong offensive day with three goals and five points for the Knights with Danny Kugler (Wappingers Falls, N.Y.) contributing a pair of goals.
 
Michael Capetola (Egg Harbor Township, N.Y.) led the Knights with seven groundballs, with Caleb Hildebrand (Bristol, Conn.) and Sean Jennings (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) each scooping four groundballs. Marco Spagnuolo (Staten Island, N.Y.) led the way with nine face-off wins.
 
Farmingdale State was led by seven goals and nine points from Wieczorek with Rifice contributing five goals and seven points. Anthony Sforza won 16 face-offs and picked up five groundballs for the Rams.
 
Christopher Doeer (Pleasantville, N.Y.) finished the game with 11 saves and has made double digit saves in each game this season. Brendan Schade picked up the win for Farmingdale State with 16 stops in nearly 58 minutes of work.
 
Farmingdale State held the advantage in shots in the game at 45-40, while shots on goal in the contest were even at 27-27. The Rams held a slim edge in groundballs at 40-36, while the Knights went 4-for-7 in man-up opportunities.
 
Saturday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 2-3 overall on the season and to 0-1 in Skyline Conference play. The Knights open a five game home stand on Wednesday when they play host to Johnson and Wales. Face-off is scheduled for 6:00 p.m.