Riverdale, NY - The Univesity of Mount Saint Vincent's men's lacrosse team competed in their first home game of the 2024 season when they hosted Albertus Magnus College on rainy Marillac Field on Wednesday night. The Dolphins battled both the competition and the weather conditions and handled both, winning by the score of 12-8 while controlling the pace of play for the majority of the 60 minutes of action. Head coach James Fitzgerald saw five different players score, all the while having his team improve to 2-0 to kick off the new season. 

Junior Ryan Jean-Pharuns got the Dolphins going when he put things into his own hands by carrying the ball by himself from the top of the box and putting in the first goal of the game just four minutes into the action. The Dolphins and Falcons traded goals in the first, with the scored tied at two at the conclusion of the first. 

From there, UMSV got going offensively. Graduate student Savion Williams scored the first of his four goals of the evening to kick off the second period to put the Dolphins up by one. From there, fellow grad student Mustapha Daffeh wowed the crowd when he quickly won the faceoff, got his own ground ball and took it all the way to the house for his first goal as a Dolphin. Williams would score two more before freshman standout Chai Dunlap put one past the opposing goaltender off a strong pass from Isaac Parsons to bring UMSV's lead five. 

After a Falcons goal to make it 7-3, Parsons would score two more before the conclusion of the half, making it a 9-3 game at the break. 

As the offense continued to impress, so did the defense. The unit of Adrian Guillermo, Walker Moore, Chris Meenan and Jake Luxoro had a strong first half, combining to force five turnovers. The defense, combined with a group of midfielders led by Williams and Daffeh, also forced 28 AMC turnovers, as well as 18 failed clears. 

The Falcons saw an uptick in production in the second half, as they outscored the Dolphins 5-2 in the second half, but it was UMSV who remained in control of the possession game throughout. 

Williams led the way with four goals while Parsons had three of his own to go along with an assist. Dunlap impressed all over the stat sheet with a pair of goals, an assist, four ground balls and three caused turnovers. Daffeh once again dominated the faceoff dot, winning 13 of his 19 opportunities, while Guillermo led the way with Dunlap with three caused turnovers of his own. Mark Luljguraj had his second impressive game in net as he made four saves in the poor conditions. 

The Dolphins look to resume their winning ways this weekend when New Paltz comes to Riverdale on Saturday.