UTICA, N.Y. – Maine Maritime men's lacrosse beat #1 seeded SUNY Delhi, 12-11 in a North Atlantic Conference (NAC) semifinal matchup on Friday evening to advance to the NAC Championship on Sunday afternoon.

How it Happened: SUNY Delhi was the first team on the board, scoring a goal after five scoreless minutes. Maine Maritime answered with three quick goals when Zeke Tocci (Naples, Maine) found Evan Golembeske (New Milford, Conn.) to spark the Mariners' offense, Brendan Reddington (Wallingford, Conn.) assisted Jayden Wilson (Lewiston, Maine) for a goal, and Alex Stevens (South Portland, Maine) found the back of the net off a pass from Wilson to put the Mariners up by two. The Broncos then scored a goal, before Wilson scored his second goal of the night off a pass from Golembeske to end the first quarter with a score of 4-2 in favor of the Mariners. The Broncos struck first in the second quarter, before Wilson found Stevens for a goal and Sam Nichol (Concord, N.H.) scored an unassisted goal to extend the Mariners' lead to three. SUNY Delhi answered with back-to-back goals, before Tocci scored an unassisted goal to make the score 7-5. Delhi ended the first half with a goal to make the score 7-6 with the Mariners in control.

Tocci quickly score in the second half, before SUNY Delhi scored two goals to tie the game 8-8. Caden White (Woodstock, Vt.) scored an unassisted goal to put the Mariners back up to end the third quarter. After a scoreless four minutes to start the fourth quarter, the Broncos scored two quick goals to regain the lead. Maine Maritime answered when Nichol found Wilson for a goal to tie the game up once again, and Stevens took on his defender for an unassisted goal to take back the lead. The Broncos scored a goal with one minute left to tie the game up at 11-11, before Nichol came down for the Mariners and scored the game-winning goal with 13 seconds left to win the game and send the Mariners to the NAC Championship!

Inside the Numbers: Wilson recorded three goals and two assists for the Mariners, along with five ground balls, while Stevens tallied three goals, four ground balls, and one caused turnover. Nichol added two goals, one being the game-winning goal, and one assist, while Tocci chipped in two goals and one assist, in addition to three ground balls and two caused turnovers. Chandler Coombs (Brunswick, Maine) recorded five ground balls and caused a game-high three caused turnovers.

Benjamin Moscatiello and Jackson Murphy scored three goals each for the Broncos, while Nick Dower added two more. Dower also tallied a game-high 14 grouond balls, while Mooscatiello and Dalton caused two turnovers each.

Zach McCarthy (Malvern, Pa.) tallied 14 saves in net for the Mariners, while Samuel Steng recorded 10 for the Broncos.

SUNY Delhi held a 42-38 advantage in shots and a 40-34 advantage in ground balls over the Mariners.

Up Next: The Mariners advance to the NAC Championship on Sunday, May 1 at 1:00pm against #3 seeded SUNY Canton.