Box Score Maine Maritime Presser / Photo Gallery

NASHUA, N.H.--The 2025 season for the Maine Maritime Academy men's lacrosse team came to an end on Wednesday afternoon with a 20-10 defeat at the hands of host Rivier University in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament at Joanne Merrill Field. Maine Maritime finishes at 10-6 overall while Rivier improves to 17-1 overall and advances to play at Bowdoin College in the second round on Saturday.

Seniors Sam Nichol and Brendan Reddington led the Mariners with four points apiece. The former netted a hat trick and the latter had two goals. Junior Trey Marcil added three assists among four points. 

Rivier's Michael Ference pumped in game highs of six goals and nine points, followed by Michael Zapatka with four goals among five points and Coby Mercier had five points (4a).

Sophomore Bryce Crowell had a productive day for the Mariners in the face-off "X" by winning 19-of-31 draws and collecting nine ground balls. As a result, Crowell becomes MMA's all-time leader with 326 ground balls after just two seasons. Jed Astbury previously held the mark with 322 from 2020-23.

Rivier scored the first nine goals of the game and never looked back. The Raiders led 14-2 at halftime.

Maine Maritime struggled offensively in the first quarter, committing turnovers on four of its first five possessions and the Mariners' first shot came via Reddington with 4 minutes and 56 seconds remaining.

Freshman Tobey Lappin (2g) put MMA on the scoreboard at the 12:20 mark of the second quarter to make it 9-1 and classmate Ryan Dunstan (1g,1a) scored the Mariners' other goal in the first half.

Maine Maritime started to put things together in the second half, but the slow start was too much to overcome. The Mariners held Rivier to three goals in the third quarter and outscored the Raiders 6-3 in the fourth.

Sawyer Gagnon, the Great Northeast Athletic Conference Goalie of the Year in 2025, made four of his nine saves in the fourth quarter, when MMA outshot RU 18-6. 

Despite the loss, the senior class of Will Arnone (3 ground balls), Zeb Dufresne (1gb, 1 caused turnover), Ben Elliott (1 gb), Nichol and Reddington is the winningest in MMA Mariners history at 44-22 for a .667 won-lost percentage, plus the program's only three North Atlantic Conference championships, three regular-season titles and three NCAA berths.