POUGHKEEPSIE, NY (3/6/2021) -- Senior Brett Erskine tied his career-high with six points on three goals and three assists, but a fourth-quarter run had the Titans in too much of a deficit as the University of Detroit Mercy men's lacrosse team dropped a 15-11 contest at Marist on Saturday afternoon.

With the condensed 2021 schedule due to the pandemic, the game was considered a non-conference match-up between the two teams who were picked to finish 1-2 in the MAAC Preseason Coaches Poll. The conference battle will take place on April 17 at Titan Field. 

Junior Jack Watsic and freshman Will Edell each scored two goals and junior AJ Van Voorhis and sophomore Ryan Birney each had a goal and an assist. 

Senior Paul Manuszak led the team with three caused turnovers, while picking up four ground balls and scoring a goal. Graduate senior Alex Jarzembowski was 15-of-28 in faceoffs with five ground balls and senior Logan Shamblin made nine saves.  

Marist got off to a quick 4-0 lead, but the Titans came back to knot it at 5-5 in the second, thanks to a 4-0 run. Later on, two-straight goals by Erskine had the Titans yo 7-6, but Marist took an 8-7 lead at the break. Van Voorhis and Birney would go back-to-back to tie it at 9-9 in the third, but the Red Foxes started the fourth on a 5-0 spurt that led to the win.

Graduate senior Alex Akins had a caused turnover and two ground balls and graduate senior Sam McClain picked up three GB's.

Both teams attempted 44 shots, while Marist had the edge in ground balls, 32-28. The Titans were 16-of-18 in clears and caused 12 of Marist's 16 turnovers.

The Titans will return home next Saturday, Mar. 13, as they officially open MAAC play against St. Bonaventure in a lacrosse doubleheader as the women host Youngstown State at noon with the men's game at 3:00 P.M.

First Period:

• It was a slow start to the game as Marist scored the first four goals
• With the man-up, Birney found Watsic and he got the Titans on the board at the 4:08 mark
• Shamblin made his third save late in the period and the Titans were down 5-1

Second Period:

• Detroit Mercy started the period with a 4-0 run as Erskine started the spurt just 30 seconds in
• Edell then came around the net and beat the keeper to make it 5-3 with 13:36 on the clock
• After a save by Shamblin, the Titans got into their set and Erskine fed Majick and he scored to make it 5-4 with 8:50 left
• Detroit Mercy would tie it up winning the faceoff and getting a penalty as Erskine found Edell and he fired one in at 8:30
• After a goal by Marist, Erskine tied it with a goal at 6-6 and then Van Voorhis found Erskine and his third goal gave the Titans a 7-6 lead with 5:32 remaining
• Marist scored two goals in the final 2:28 to take an 8-7 lead at the break

Third Period:

• The Red Foxes scored early to make it 9-7
• Van Voorhis would cut into that with a nice shot fake and then firing one in at 10:33
• After a couple of Shamblin saves and a caused turnover by Noah Martin, the Titans got the ball back and Birney had a nice off-balanced shot to tie it at 9-9 with 3:31 left
• Shamblin made a save and then had a caused turnover in the last 10 seconds to keep Marist off the scoreboard and it was 9-9 after three

Fourth Period:

• Marist started the period on a 5-0 run
• Manuszak ended that as he picked up a ground ball off a Jarzembowski faceoff win to make it 14-10 with 5:43 remaining
• Later on, on the man-up, Erskine set up Watsic for his second goal and it was 14-11 with 1:49 to go

Game Notes:

• The game was the first in 367 days for the Titans due to the pandemic
• Marist leads the all-time series, 8-6, including 6-1 at home
• 11 of the 14 games in the series have been decided by four goals or less, including eight by one goal
• Detroit Mercy is now 4-9 all-time in season openers, 1-8 in road season openers and 1-12 all-time in road openers
• Erskine's other two six-point games were against Bellarmine the last two years
• With his six points Erskine moved to seventh in school history with 91, passing Mike Birney (89) and Joel Matthews (87) and now just four behind Scott Harris for sixth
• Erskine's three assists give him 34 in his career as he moved past Shayne Adams and Mark Anstead (32) for seventh in Titan history,  just six behind Scott Drummond for sixth
• Manuszak now has 29 career caused turnovers and 10 goals
• Jarzembowski now has 556 career faceoff wins as he has now won double-digit faceoffs in 33 career games, including 13 games with 15 or more faceoffs wins