Immaculata, PA – After Immaculata tied Wednesday's Pennsylvania Athletic Conference game at 4-4 with a goal just over a minute into the third quarter, Marywood responded by scoring five of the game's next six goals on their way to a crucial 10-7 win over the Mighty Macs. With the win, Marywood improves to 7-3 on the season and will finish the program's first regular season with a winning record. The Pacers also hold a 4-2 mark in the PAC and will head into the final week of the season looking for a playoff berth.
The Mighty Macs struck first when Brendan Dineen scored off a Zach Krytzer assist just 3:48 into the contest. Marywood responded with the next three goals to take a 3-1 lead after the first quarter. Nick Parks (Emmaus, PA) tied the score with 8:23 to play and Ryne Boyle (Farmingville, NY) scored 50 seconds later with the Pacers a man-up off a feed from Andrew Harman (Patchogue, NY). William Roerden (Warwick, NY) set up Boyle's second goal of the game with 5:19 to play in the opening stanza.
Immaculata got goals from Alan Lorentz and Dineen to knot the game at 3-3 in the second period, but George Downey's (Palmyra, PA) unassisted goal with 11 seconds to play gave the visitors a one-goal halftime advantage.
Dineen's third goal of the contest just 1:01 into the second half tied the game back up at 4-4, but Marywood responded with two goal in the next minute as Roerden scored a goal of his own that was set up by Parks and Jamie Beagen (Patchogue, NY) assisted on Downey's second goal. Parks scored with 7:54 to play in the third quarter to give the Pacers a 7-4 lead heading into the final period.
Geoff Lorentz trimmed Marywood's lead to two goals when he scored 2:01 into the fourth quarter, but Harman answered for the Pacers 1:50 later and Downey completed his hat-trick with 9:06 to play to give the Pacers some insurance. Beagen notched his second assist of the game on Downey's goal.
Dineen scored his fourth goal of the game with 5:58 to play and Tom Hartney scored a minute after setting up Dineen's goal to bring the hosts to within two goals, but the Pacers iced it with 2:11 to play when Brian Roerden (Warwick, NY) set up his brother William's second goal of the afternoon.
Immaculata, who saw its record slip to 3-6 (2-3 PAC), held a slim 38-36 advantage in shots, but Marywood won the groundball battle 36-29. The Pacers went 1-7 in extra-man opportunities while holding the Mighty Macs scoreless in three man-up chances.
Jesse Habich (Broomall, PA) notched the win for the Pacers by making 16 saves while Immaculata's Andrew Sim turned away 19 Marywood shots in a losing effort.
The Pacers, who have now won three of their last four games, will return to action this Saturday when they travel to Aurora, NY to take on Wells College in a non-conference match-up scheduled to face-off at 2:00 p.m.
Marywood will then return home to host a pair of pivotal PAC games next week. Nationally-ranked Cabrini College will come to Scranton next Wednesday for a conference game scheduled to face-off at 3:30 p.m. That Saturday, Shenandoah University will make the long trip up from Winchester, Virginia for a 1:00 p.m. game that could very well determine which team advances to the PAC playoffs.
