DANBURY, Conn. - Despite a game-high five goals and two assists from graduate student midfielder Liam Ford (New Fairfield, Conn.), the Western Connecticut State University men's lacrosse squad suffered a 17-15 loss to the visiting United States Merchant Marine Academy in a non-conference battle on Saturday afternoon at the Westside Athletic Complex. 

With the loss, the Wolves dropped to 3-1 overall while the Mariners improved to 2-0. WestConn had won the last four contests between the two teams. 

Other noteworthy performances came from Wolves junior midfielder Tristan McMahon (Farmingville, N.Y.) who finished with four goals in his season debut including a highlight reel spin-o-rama blast into the twine. Graduate student attack Benjamin Hawthorne (Manorville, N.Y.) also dished out a trio of assists.

Senior attack Jack Collins (Memphis, Tenn.) paced the visitors with four goals and three helpers, while sophomore midfielder Owen Behr (Vestavia Hills, Ala.) chipped in with four goals and a pair of assists. Rookie middie Landon Locke (Midlothian, Va.) also contributed four scoring strikes.

The Wolves controlled most of the action but came up on the short end of the stick. They outshot the Mariners, 60-31, while winning the ground ball battle, 40-22. Graduate student face-off specialist Jonathan Russack-Baker (Groton, Conn.) continued his dominance as he won 27-of-35 attempts. However, USMMA made the most of its opportunities.

The hosts jumped out to an early 3-1 lead before the visitors countered with three of their own. WestConn sophomore James Kreig (Port Jefferson, N.Y.) then answered to set the count at 4-4 heading into the second quarter. The Mariners converted a pair of man-up tallies en route to seizing a 10-7 halftime advantage.

The visitors extended the lead to four in the third quarter and would head into the fourth ahead 13-10. WestConn continued to apply the pressure, slicing the gap to 13-13 and then regaining a 14-13 advantage on a pair of goals from Ford. The squads exchanged goals before Locke canned his sixth goal of the year, deadlocking the count at 15-15 with 5:34 remaining. Shortly thereafter, Behr raced in to find the back of the net, unassisted, before junior midfielder William Badeer (Pittsburgh, Pa.) added an insurance tally, sending the Mariners to the 17-15 victory.

WestConn rookie goalkeeper Jake Kelly (Bethpage, N.Y.) came on in relief and took the tough luck loss, falling to 0-1 while stopping four shots. USMMA sophomore netminder Julian Garcia (Lakeway, Texas) was stellar in between the pipes, playing the entire contest to earn the win and move to 2-0 while turning aside 18 shots.

The Wolves will look to get back to their winning ways when they square up against visiting non-league foe Connecticut College on Tuesday at 6 p.m.