Patchogue, N.Y. – The Mount Saint Mary College Men's Lacrosse team dropped a heartbreaking 8-7 road decision at league rival St. Joseph's-L.I. on Thursday in a game carrying Skyline Conference Championship implications. Three Knights scored two goals and junior goalie Eli Laikin (Oak Bluffs, Mass.) finished with 12 saves.
 
Tightly contested throughout, neither team held a lead larger than one goal over the course of the game. The two sides split four first period goals and St. Joseph's netted the only goal of the second stanza to carry a 3-2 lead into halftime.
 
Billy Holland (Pearl River, N.Y.) and Vinny Vaccaro (Floral Park, N.Y.) tallied first quarter goals that each tied the score, with Chris Neelsen scoring just under 90 seconds into the second stanza to give the Golden Eagles to one goal halftime advantage. Anthony Passarella finished the opening 30 minutes with a goal and a pair of assists for St. Joseph's.
 
The Golden Eagles held a 20-13 advantage in first half shots on Thursday as well as a 23-14 edge in groundballs. The Golden Eagles won four of the seven face-offs contested, while Laikin finished the opening half with eight saves.
 
Junior Ryan Maraio (Staten Island, N.Y.) knotted the score at 3-3 early in the third period with a man-up goal and after a Max Chi tally moved St. Joseph's back in front 4-3, the Knights scored consecutive goals for the only time in the game to grab their first lead. Maraio evened the score at 4-4 with 6:37 in the third quarter before Holland buried a man-up tally with 1:44 left in the stanza to push the Knights in front 5-4.
 
After outscoring the Golden Eagles 3-1 in the third quarter, the Mount was outscored in the fourth period 4-2. Brian Esposito (Floral Park, N.Y.) and Vaccaro both gave the Mount one goal leads, with Vaccaro pushing the Knights in front 7-6 with just over eight minutes left in regulation time.

After grabbing their final one goal lead, St. Joseph's scored the final two goals over the game, netting two tallies in the final 4:08 of the fourth stanza. Tim McCann scored a man-down goal at the 4:08 mark to even the score at 7-7 ahead of a Nielsen tally with 2:05 left for the final lead change of the game. The Mount gained control in the final half minute, but could not get a shoot of to tie the score.
 
Maraio, Holland and Vaccaro all finished the contest with two goals for the Knights, with Holland moving his team lead in goals to 23 on the season. Maraio pushed his goal total to 19 and improved his team-high point total to 39 on the season.
 
Esposito finished the contest with a goal and an assist for the Knights with Michael Gallucci (Northport, N.Y.) assisting on a pair of goals.
 
Matthew Martino (Watertown, Conn.) closed out a strong day on defense with five caused turnovers and six groundballs. Danny Marshall (Oceanside, N.Y.) and A.J. Bolger (West Milford, N.J.) each caused two miscues, with Marshall picking up two groundballs and  Bolger collecting four groundballs for the Knights. Dennis Dowd (Hopewell Junction, N.Y.) won four face-offs for the Mount.
 
Passarella led the Golden Eagles with two goals and three assists with Neilsen and Chin each scoring twice. Vincent Raccuglia caused six turnovers with Passarella leading the way with seven groundballs. Declan Canevari went 9-for-14 in face-offs and collected four groundballs.
 
Laikin suffered the tough luck loss for the Knights in goal, finishing with 12 saves in the contest to go along with two groundballs. Laikin now has 136 saves on the season after making double-figure saves in a game for the ninth time this season. Andrew Brust picked up the victory with eight stops for the Golden Eagles.
 
Overall, St. Joseph's finished with a 38-30 advantage in shots to go along with a 46-33 edge in groundballs and a 12-7 advantage in face-offs. Mount Saint Mary went 22-for-30 in clears and scored twice in five chances with the man advantage.
 
Thursday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 5-9 overall on the season and to 2-2 in Skyline Conference play. Next up for the Knights is a trip to the United States Merchant Marine Academy on April 24. Face-off with the Mariners is set for 6:00 p.m.