DETROIT (4/25/2015) — The University of Detroit Mercy men’s lacrosse team needed a win to make the MAAC Championship and the Titans took care of business early scoring seven-straight goals en route to an 11-6 victory over Canisius on Saturday.
The win moved Detroit to 8-5 on the season and 4-2 in the MAAC as the Titans will be the third seed in the MAAC Championship and face second-seeded Quinnipiac in the semifinals on Thursday. The eight wins also assured Detroit of its first winning season in the program’s seven-year history as well as kept the Titans undefeated at home at 6-0, one of only eight teams in the nation unblemished at home. Canisius was officially eliminated from postseason play and finished the year at 3-12 overall and 2-4 in the MAAC.
Senior Scott Drummond led the way with three goals and four points, his fourth hat trick of the season and seventh of his career. Senior Shayne Adams had two goals and an assist and senior Brandon Beauregard notched three assists. Sophomore Jason Weber made 17 saves and now owns the school’s single-season record with 191, and freshman Charlie Hayes posted a season-best three caused turnovers and two ground balls.
Before the game, the Titans honored their 10-man senior class in Alex Wilson, Shayne Adams, Mike Birney, Joe Gifford, Chris Shevins, Thomas Sible, Scott Drummond, Brandon Beauregard, Tyler Harper and Brian Smith.
That energy carried over to the game as Detroit scored early in the first as junior Andy Hebden set up freshman Sean Birney’s first goal. Birney then put UDM ahead 2-0 late in the period as freshman Mark Anstead located him and he beat the keeper.
The senior connections came next as Drummond fed Adams, who scored the first of his two on the power play. Harper then challenged the Canisius defense and got inside for his second career goal at the 12:01 mark and that was followed 30 seconds later with Adams setting up Drummond this time for a 5-0 lead.
Sophomore Greg Marzec extended it to 6-0 as he won a faceoff and surged down the field firing one in, while sophomore Kyle Beauregard struck just a minute later for a 7-0 advantage with 10:21 left in the quarter.
Detroit led 9-2 at the break as Drummond notched another in the second and the elder Birney took a pass from Beauregard and found the back of the net.
Canisius scored the only two goals of the third to cut it to 9-4, but two-straight tallies by Detroit in the fourth put the game away. Beauregard was the playmaker again assisting on Adams’ second marker at the 14:02 mark before feeding Drummond for his third goal with 8:22 left.
Detroit won the battle of ground balls, 37-24, and won the faceoffs taking 13-of-21. UDM was also 3-of-7 with the extra-man attack.
Junior Damien Hicks was 9-of-12 on faceoffs with a season-high five ground balls and Marzec was 4-of-8. Weber picked up five ground balls and had a caused turnover and sophomore Marcus Butters and redshirt freshman Pat Masterson each corralled three GB’s.
The MAAC Championship will be held at Marist in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., and will begin on Thursday, April 30, with the semifinals, while the championship game is scheduled for Saturday, May 1. More information on the full field and tickets will be available on Sunday.
Game Notes:
Detroit now leads the all-time series, 5-2, and is 3-0 at home and 5-0 in the last five regular season meetings… Detroit and Canisius are two of eight Jesuit schools playing Division I lacrosse (Fairfield, Georgetown, Holy Cross, Loyola (Md.), Marquette and St. Joseph’s)…. The 7-0 run to start the game was the second most consecutive goals on the year for Detroit as it scored eight in a row at Bellarmine earlier in the year… Drummond became the third Titan in school history to reach 100 points and is third in school history with 103 as well as third with 63 goals… Harper scored his first collegiate goal against Manhattan earlier in the season… Brandon Beauregard has a career-best 16 assists on the year… Adams recorded a point for the 59th-straight game and leads all active players in that statistic… Hicks has won 50.0 percent of his faceoffs seven times in the last eight games and is 65-of-110 (.590) during that stretch… Sible took a faceoff for the first time in his career in the game…
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