Castine, ME – The Lyndon State College men's lacrosse team defeated Maine Maritime Academy 8-5 in Saturday afternoon's North Atlantic Conference quarterfinal contest.  The Hornets improve to 7-8 on the season and advance to play top seed and NAC regular season champion New England College.  That game will take place on Wednesday evening at 6:00 pm at NEC.  Maine Maritime ends their season at 4-8 overall.

The Hornets scored the only goal in the first quarter when Zachary Carey (Exeter, NH) found the back of the net on a pass from teammate Shea Jones (Hull, MA). Lyndon added two goals in the second quarter to take a 3-0 lead, as Spencer Aubin (Sharon, MA) scored with an assist from Brandon Hunter (Glastonbury, CT), then Jones found Carey for the second time.  Maine Maritime's Alex Grant-Roy (Biddeford, ME) cut the deficit to 3-1 when he scored with two seconds to go in the half.

Aubin extended the lead to 4-1 on an unassisted goal at 11:28 of the third quarter, but Tom Anderson (Danvers, MA) added a goal for the Mariners to make it 4-2 with just over 10 minutes to go in the third. The Hornets' James Ceglia (Oyster Bay, NY) scored a goal with 65 seconds to go in the quarter, and Orion Sargent (Topsham, ME) gave the Mariners another last second goal to close Lyndon's lead to 5-3 entering the fourth quarter.

Sawyer Watson (Topsham, ME) scored in the first minute of the fourth quarter to cut Lyndon's lead to one, 5-4, but the Hornets went on a three-goal run to build an 8-4 lead entering the final minutes of the game.  Jones and Ceglia both picked up unassisted goals, then Jones found Anthony Townsend (Pembroke, MA) with 2:30 remaining.  Grant-Roy, scored a late goal, but it was too little too late as Lyndon held on for the victory.

Aubin, Carey, and James Ceglia led the Hornets with two goals each, while Shea Jones added a goal and three assists. Brandon Hunter led the Hornets with five ground balls and two caused turnovers.

Grant-Roy led the Mariners with two goals, two assists, six ground balls and a caused turnover, while Anderson, Sargent, and Watson, chipped in with the other goals. William Evon (Barrington, IL) led the Mariners with seven ground balls and four caused turnovers, and Nathan Granholm (Brunswick, ME) scooped up six ground balls and a caused turnover. Mitchell Farley (Biddeford, ME) went 11-of-17 from the faceoff X.

Marcus Bessette (Pembroke, NH) made eight saves and picked up the win in goal for the Hornets.  Maine Maritime's Isaiah Weston (Mt. Vernon, ME) took the loss in net for the Mariners with five saves.

The Hornets outshot the Mariners, 29-23 but the Mariners won the battle of ground balls, 30-22.