Newburgh, N.Y. – Playing in its first game in over a calendar year, the Mount Saint Mary College Men's Lacrosse team suffered a hard fought 10-9 loss to visiting conference rival Maritime Sunday afternoon. Brian Esposito (Floral Park, N.Y.) was one of three Knights to score multiple goals, finishing the game with a team best five points.
 
Mount Saint Mary got off to a strong start, getting goals from Anthony Kearns (Clark, N.J.) and Brandon Holloway (Garden City, N.Y.) in the first quarter to give the Knights an early 2-0 lead. Maritime responded with two goals in the final half minute of the opening stanza to knot the score at 2-2 after 15 minutes of play.
 
The two goals late in the first period started a six goal run for the Privateers that saw it open a 6-2 lead following a Jason Corvi marker with 9:50 left before halftime. Esposito stopped the run with his first of the game at the 9:44 mark of the second stanza and struck again a minute later to bring the Knights to within 6-4.
 
Following the Esposito markers, Maritime produced the final three goals of the first half to carry a 9-4 lead into the intermission. Mike Leake sparked the run for the visitors with a goal and an assist.
 
After building a five-goal lead at the intermission, Maritime was limited to just one goal by the Mount Saint Mary defense in the final 30 minutes of action. Kearns and Vinny Vaccaro (Floral Park, N.Y.) scored early in the third period to get the Knights back to within three goals before Collin Flannery scored what proved to be the game winning goal for Maritime at the 11:08 mark of the third quarter.
 
Colby Martin (Huntington, N.Y.) scored his first of the season with just under 10 minutes left in the third period and Sean Mueller (Pleasantville, N.Y.) scored the first two goals of his career in the middle stages of the fourth to bring the Knights to within a shot of tying the score with 6:51 left to play. Mount Saint Mary produced three shots after Mueller's second goal, but could not get the game even.
 
Esposito had a strong season opener for the Mount, posting a pair of goals and three helpers to go along with two groundball and a caused turnover. Kearns and Mueller each finished with two tallies for the Knights on the day.
 
Zachary Beam (Montgomery, N.Y.) won 13 face-offs for the Knights and added an assist, while Ryan Olmstead (Millbrook, N.Y.) collected four groundballs.
 
Maritime was led by three goals and five points from Bryan Keegan with Corvi adding a pair of markers. Joe Kiernan led the way for Maritime with four groundballs.
 
Devin Kelley (Hebron, Conn.) made 11 saves in goal for the Knights and matched the team-high with four groundballs. Kyle Bockelman earned the win with 12 stops for Maritime.
 
Maritime finished the afternoon with a 49-35 advantage in overall shots, while shots on goal in the game were even at 21-21. Mount Saint Mary held the edge in face-off wins 14-9 with Maritime holding a 35-27 edge in groundballs. Mount Saint Mary rounded out the day 16-for-21 in clearing chances.
 
At 0-1 overall on the season, Mount Saint Mary is scheduled to take on Purchase on March 26. Face-off at Kapan Field in set for 6:00 p.m.