Erie, Pa. - Scott Janssen scored five goals and Mike Thon added three goals and three assists as the Mercyhurst men's lacrosse team beat No. 2 NYIT 12-9 Saturday at Tullio Field for Senior Day. The win clinches at least a share of the East Coast Conference Championship and puts the Lakers in the driver's seat for a berth to the Final Four.

Mercyhurst jumped out to an 8-2 lead as Janssen scored four times in the first half but NYIT battled back to within one goal on two occasions. The Lakers finished by scoring three of the final four goals to get the victory.

Janssen and Thon put the Lakers on top 2-0 just 72 seconds into play and Janssen's second goal at 8:29 gave Mercyhurst a 3-0 lead. NYIT bounced back with two consecutive goals but Adam Mulherin added a goal late in the first to give the Lakers a 4-2 lead after one period.

Mercyhurst blanked NYIT in the second period as Thon scored early and Janssen added two goals for a 7-2 Laker halftime lead.

Mike Bartlett scored to put the Lakers on top 8-2 early in the third period, but NYIT took over for an extended time after that. The Bears put up three goals to end the third and close within three heading into the fourth.

Jake Delillo posted three consecutive goals, one to end the third and two to start the fourth, to close NYIT within on at 8-7.

With momentum squarely in NYIT's favor, Janssen scored his final goal of the game to put the Lakers ahead 9-7. But Tech's Kevin Hennessy scored 18 seconds later to cut the deficit to one again.

With time running down, NYIT had to force the action and Mercyhurst made the Bears pay. Bryon Lindner scored his only goal of the game with 3:17 to play and Thon added his final goal 43 seconds later. After a NYIT goal with 2:05 left, Bartlett put the contest away on the final goal of the game with 25 seconds left.

Both teams finished with 30 shots for the contest, but NYIT held a 31-22 ground balls advantage and won 20-of-25 face-offs.

NYIT loses for the first time this year and falls to 9-1 on the season and 4-1 in the ECC. Mercyhurst improves to 10-1 overall and 4-0 in the ECC. The Lakers will go for sole possession of the conference championship when they host Dominican Sunday at 1:30 p.m.

2007-04-28