BUZZARDS BAY, Mass -- The Bucs men's lacrosse team opened their 2025 campaign on Tuesday night at home in a non-conference clash with Johnson & Wales at Clean Harbors Stadium. The high-scoring game went in favor of the Bucs by a final of 16-13.

The Basics

Final: Buccaneers 16, Wildcats 13

Records: Maritime 1-0

               Johnson & Wales 2-2

Between the Pipes

Maritime: Ronan Kearney (W, 1-0): 13 GA | 3 Sv | 16 SH | 60 Min

Johnson & Wales: Andrew Sforza (L, 2-2): 16 GA | 18 Sv | 34 SH | 60 Min

Inside The Numbers

Maritime

• Ryan McDonough tied for the game-high with five goals in the win for the Bucs. 
• Daniel Kane, James Sullivan, and Cooper McIntire scored twice for Maritime.
• Quinn Mucha, Cooper Barrett, Chilton Cabot, Brady Deschenes, and Joe Vricella all scored once.
• Sullivan recorded a team-high four assists in the game. Kane had three helpers of his own. Four other Bucs had one assist apiece. 
• Faceoff man Brian Rosher won 22-of-29 faceoffs for the Bucs and picked up a game-high 11 ground balls. 
• Defensively, Mucha and Scott MacKinnon had a game-high three caused turnovers each. 
• In total, Maritime picked up 42 ground balls, was successful on 18-of-20 clears, won 24-of-31 faceoffs, and took 64 shots in the win.

Johnson & Wales

• Matthew Bancroft had five goals in the loss for the Wildcats. Donny McInnis scored four times in the game. Jack Davis, Greyson Doyle, Jackson Vecchio, and Jacob Tresser all scored once. 
• Davis had a game-high five assists, Jack Donnelly added two, and Kyle Marcinko and Trevor Reid each had one assist.
• Donnelly picked up a team-high four ground balls for JWU.
• Defensively, Tyler Chiccino had a team-high three caused turnovers.
• In total, Johnson & Wales picked up 25 ground balls, were successful on 23-of-37 clears, won seven-of-31 faceoffs, and took 31 total shots in the loss.

How It Happened

The Wildcats scored first and jumped out to a 2-0 lead just over five minutes in with goals from Vecchio and Bancroft. Of the ensuing faceoff, Deschene came down and scored the first goal for the Bucs at 9:15. McDonough followed Deschene's goal up with one of his own to tie the game at 2-2 at 8:21. Johnson & Wales stood strong on defense and went on to score three more goals in the quarter, taking a three-goal lead, 5-2, their biggest of the game, to end the first quarter.

Maritime scored first in the second quarter with a goal 59 seconds into the period from McIntire and then again at the 11:47 mark to get back within one goal, 5-4, with just over 10 minutes to play in the half. The Wildcats matched the two Buccaneers goals with two goals from Bancroft and JWU retook a three-goal lead, 7-4. Maritime's offense kicked it into high gear in the middle of the second quarter and scored three goals in under two minutes. Kane scored the first of the run at 8:11, Barrett scored just over a minute later, and McDonough scored 31 seconds after Barrett to bring the score even at 7-7. McInnis gave the Wildcats the lead back at 6:09 and Johnson & Wales had an 8-7 advantage with six minutes to play in the half. Momentum swung in favor of Maritime in the final five minutes of the quarter as they got goals from Kane and McDonough at 4:53, and 1:34, and held a 9-8 lead, their first of the game, at the halftime break.

In the third, the Bucs extended their lead two two goals under five minutes into the quarter on a Sullivan goal making the score 10-8. JWU then scored two in a row to tie the game at 10-10 on two goals from McInnis. McDonough salvaged the quarter for the Bucs with their second and final goal of the third to give MAritime an 11-10 lead with 4:30 left to play in the third. Bancroft netted another goal for the visitors at 3:36 to tie the game once again at 11-11. The score remained tied heading to the fourth quarter of play.

The Wildcats scored first in the fourth on Doyle's goal 33 seconds into the final period, giving his team a 12-11 advantage. Doyle's goal was the last for the Wildcats for more than 10 minutes with the Buccaneers defense holding pat and allowing the offense to rattle off five consecutive scores over those 10 minutes. Mucha scored his only goal to start the run and McDonough followed up 51 seconds later to regain the lead for Maritime, 13-12. After a 4-minute scoring drought, Sullivan scored to give the Bucs a two-goal lead and McIntire scored again at 7:28 to give the hosts a three-goal, 15-12 advantage. Cabot scored the final goal of the five-goal run and of the game for the Bucs at 3:49 to give the Buccaneers their biggest lead of the game, by four goals, 16-12, with 3:49 to play. The Wildcats did score one last goal from the stick of Bancroft with three minutes left. His goal was the final one of the game for either team and Maritime held on to win 16-13 in the season and home opener over the Wildcats. 

What's Next

The Buccaneers play again on Saturday, March 8th on the road against Norwich University in Vermont. Faceoff is scheduled for 1pm.