North Andover, Mass. (March 26) -- No. 4 ranked Merrimack scored a pair of man-up goals in the fourth quarter to open up a four-goal advantage as Assumption dropped an 8-5 final to the Warriors on Saturday afternoon at Warrior Field. The Greyhounds had pulled to within 5-4 at halftime before the Warriors tallied three unanswered scores to extend the lead back to four in the second half.
Both teams started out very patiently on offense and it was Merrimack who struck first for the early 1-0 lead. With 12:05 left in the first quarter, Brad McAdam tallied the unassisted score for the Warriors. Assumption answered by on scores from Nicholas Violandi (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury) and John Murphy (Walpole, Mass./Bridgton Academy) midway thru the period and took a 2-1 advantage into the second quarter. The first 11 minutes of the second period were all Merrimack as the Warriors quickly tied the game and jumped out to a 4-2 advantage with 8:09 left in the half. Assumption senior Will Langevin (Concord, Mass./Concord-Carlisle) stopped the Merrimack scoring run with an unassisted goal before the Warriors again made it a two-goal game at 5-3. The Greyhounds got the ball back late in the period and Langevin took a pass from Connor MacNeil (Wayland, Mass./Wayland) and found the back of the net with 0.5 seconds on the clock for a 5-4 game at the break.
Merrimack scored the only goal of the third quarter, but was able to take control of the contest early in the fourth. The Greyhounds took a three-minute penalty just 31 seconds into the fourth quarter and Merrimack scored twice on the man-up opportunity for the 8-4 lead with 12:08 left in the game. Violandi scored his second goal of the game for the Greyhounds with 2:47 left to complete the scoring in the 8-5 final.
Senior goaltender Scott Vogel (Powell, Ohio/Olentangy-Liberty) made 12 saves, including a number of saves on point-blank shots, while taking the loss. Connor Reagan turned aside three Assumption shots while picking up the victory for Merrimack.
With the loss, Assumption falls to 5-2 overall and 1-1 in Northeast-10 play, while Merrimack now stands at 5-1 overall and 2-0 in league action. The Greyhounds are back in action on Wednesday, March 30th as the team hosts Bentley for a 7 p.m. start at Multi-Sport Stadium.
