Men's lacrosse reaches postseason, toppled at Thomas

WATERVILLE -- The University of Maine at Farmington men's lacrosse team's first postseason appearance was short-lived as the fifth-seeded Beavers fell to No. 4 Thomas College 14-3 in North Atlantic Conference first-round action today..

The Beavers finished their second campaign as a varsity sport with a 4-7 record. The Terriers (7-4) advance to face top-seeded Castleton State College in the semifinals on Wednesday.

Jeff Morse led all scorers as he netted four goals in the victory.

After Scott Dumas opened the scoring the score remain 1-0 as both teams struggled to posses the ball. Morse got Thomas rolling again at the two minute mark in the first, when Dumas found him for the 2-0 lead.  The Terriers kicked off the second period of play with five unanswered goals. Bradley Stiles led the charge for the Terriers in the second as he scored two of his three goals on the day. Stiles also assisted a Sean Machin goal at the 11:50 mark.

The Beavers tallied the first goal of the game at the 53 second mark, when Matt Roy (Kents Hill, Maine) ripped an unassisted shot passed Thomas goal keeper Jesse Morkeski.  At halftime the scoreboard read 7-1 Thomas.

The Terriers came out in the second half and scored three goals in the third period; the first coming from Morse on an extra man opportunity at the 10:14 mark. Morse tallied the second goal with an assist from Dumas at the 6:32 mark, and the third goal was a unassisted snipe from Gunnar Shelton at the 3:20 mark.

To start the fourth, the Terriers scored four unanswered goals, starting with Geoff Carpenter's goal at the 11:10 mark.  Shelton closed out the Terriers scoring with a goal off of a Machin assist at the 5:16 on a man up opportunity.

UMF found the net two more times to close the game. Rylan Cates (Camden, Maine) at the 4:30 mark and Tennessee Peters(Scarborough, Maine) fired a shot past freshmen goalie Joseph Caraglia.

Morkeski earned the win for Thomas with a 19 save performance.

Ben Altmaier (Farmington, Maine) made 18 saves for UMF in the loss.