Geneva, N.Y. (April 25, 2015)--Evan Gormley (Mentor, Ohio) scored three goals to lead the Mount St. Mary's men's lacrosse team to a 10-8 win at Hobart on Saturday afternoon.  The win coupled with Sacred Heart's loss to Saint Joseph's allowed the Mount to clinch the final spot in the Northeast Conference Tournament.

Needing to win to keep their playoff hopes alive, the Mountaineers (5-9, 2-4 NEC) stormed to a 4-1 lead after the first quarter.  Bubba Johnson (Wyoming, Del.) opened the scoring on a breakaway 4:37 into the game.  Ryan Lamon (Severna Park, Md.) added his first goal of the day two minutes later to push the lead to 2-0.

After Hobart got on the scoreboard, Justin Gosnell (Aberdeen, Md.) scored an extra-man goal on a feed from Lamon to make it 3-1 with 1:28 left in the first quarter.  Gormley tallied his first score of the contest with three seconds left in the first to give the Mount a 4-1 advantage.

Gormley's second goal of the game came 38 seconds into the second quarter to push the Mount lead to 5-1.  Hobart's Taylor Vanderbeek countered with a goal 1:51 later, but the Mount proceeded to score the next three goals to take a commanding 8-2 advantage.

Mike Moynihan (West Islip, N.Y.), Lamon and Gormley each scored in a span of 5:05 to give the Mount its biggest lead of the game, 8-2, with 4:33 left in the first half.  Hobart's Alex Love tallied the first of his three goals to make it 8-3 at the half.

The Mount dominated play in the opening 30 minutes, holding a 25-to-8 edge in shots and a 23-to-11 advantage in ground balls.

The Statesmen (7-6, 4-2 NEC) fought their way back on goals from Cooper Stefaniak and Love to cut the Mount advantage to 8-5 with 10:40 left in regulation.  The Mount regained momentum when Clayton Wainer (Del Rio, Texas) scored a man0up goal and Gosnell added his second score of the game with 6:41 left to push the lead back to five.  Hobart scored three times in the final 2:24, but it was not enough as the Mount earned the two-goal road win.

Mount St. Mary's ended the game with a 47-27 edge in shots and a 40-21 advantage in ground balls.  The Mount also went 2-for-3 in extra-man opportunities in the victory.

Lamon finished the game with a career-high four points on two goals and two assists.  Gormley's hat trick was his second of the season while Gosnell's two-goal effort gives him a team-high 20 goals this year. 

Nick Haley (Ferndale, Md.) won 12-of-22 face-offs while collecting a team-high seven ground balls.  Defenseman Alex Stefkovich (Trumbull, Conn.) had a pair of caused turnovers with five ground balls in the game.  Mount freshman goalkeeper Matt Vierheller (Forest Hill, Md.) made 10 saves.

Love led Hobart with three goals with Frank Brown chipping in a goal and two assists.  Jackson Brown made 12 saves in the loss.

The Mount, Robert Morris and Sacred Heart all finished tied for fourth place in the NEC standings.  With the teams each going 1-1 against each other, the tie was broken by the Mount's win over second-place Hobart.  This is the Mount's first appearance in the NEC Tournament since falling to Bryant in the 2012 championship game.

Mount St. Mary's will face host and top-seed Saint Joseph's in the NEC semifinals on Thursday, April 30.  Hobart will face Bryant in the other semifinal.  Game times are to be announced.

--Mount St. Mary's University Athletics--