GRANTHAM, PA – The #13 York College men's lacrosse squad capped a perfect MAC Commonwealth campaign with an 18-7 league win over Messiah in the Spartans regular season finale on Saturday in Grantham, PA.
The Spartans finished the league year 7-0 and will be the number one seed in next weekend's MAC Commonwealth tournament. The victory was also the 200^th win at York for Spartan head coach Brandon Childs.
York improves to 14-3 overall while the Falcons fall to 6-11 overall and 3-4 in the conference.
 
How It Happened
• The Spartans got off to a quick start as they scored the first three goals of the game over the opening ten minutes of play. Nate Schilling, Cory Bergmann and Davis Fisher found the back of the net for the Green and White to stake them to an early lead. The Falcons responded with a pair of goals in a little over a minute, slicing the Spartan lead to 3-2. Blake Morton made it 4-2 with a goal with just 1:09 remaining in the quarter.
• The Spartans put a vice grip on the game with a seven-goal run to start the second quarter. Schilling started the run with his second goal of the game just 1:07 into the stanza. Zach Rutledge followed with a goal just 16 seconds later for a 6-2 lead. Morton, Bergmann, Gavin Gismondi, Sean O'Reilly, and Bergman closed out the run with goals and an 11-2 lead. Messiah's Bobby Berg halted the run with goal but York closed out the quarter with three more goals as Rhys McCarver scored followed by two Fisher tallies as York took a 14-3 lead to the break.
• York outscored Messiah 10-1 in the second as they out-shot the Falcons 22-2 in total shots including 12-1 in shots on goal. The Spartans went 2-for-2 in the man-up and won nine of the 12 face offs for the quarter.
• Each team scored single goals in the third as the scoring pace slowed dramatically. Messiah scored three of the first four goals of the fourth quarter but the Spartan closed out the game with goals from Gismondi and Dom DeRubbo for the final 18-7 Spartan margin of victory.
 
By the Numbers
The Spartans finished the game out-shooting the Falcons 51-25 including 30-16 in shots on goal … York won the ground ball battle 43-27 … York converted 5-of-7 extra man chances … the Spartans won 18-of-28 face offs in the win …. York was uncharacteristically sloppy as they committed 18 turnovers compared to 17 for Messiah … York had a 12-9 led in caused turnovers … York was 15-for-22 in clears while Messiah was 12-for-13 … Bobby Berg led the way for Messiah as he notched three points on two goals and one assist while he also had a pair of ground balls … Michael Cook added two goals and three ground balls … Adam Collison had two caused turnovers and two ground balls for the Falcons … Jourdain Algarin played 55:51 in net for the Falcons as he made 10 saves while he allowed 17 goals.
 
Spartan Notes
York improves to 8-2 all-time against Messiah as they have won five straight in the series … York has now won 33 straight MAC Commonwealth regular season games and are 35-1 overall in Commonwealth play since they entered the league for the 2021 season … York has won four straight MAC Commonwealth regular season titles … head coach Brandon Childs earned his 200^th win as the Spartan bench boss … Childs is now 200-63 (76.0%) at the helm of the Spartan program as he is in his 14^th season at York … overall Childs is now 228-82 in 17 years as a collegiate head coach … York outscored their seven Commonwealth opponents by a combined score of 131-50 with assists on 94 of their 131 goals … York won 66.3% (134-for-202) of their conference face-offs … York had a 295-171 bulge in ground balls in league play … Davis Fisher had another big day for York as he notched nine points on three goals and six assists … Fisher is York's leading scorer in conference play with 40 points on ten goals and 30 assists in seven games … Cory Bergmann continues his late season charge with seven points on four goals and three assists in addition to a pair of ground balls … Gavin Gismondi added three goals and an assist for four points while he also had seven ground balls and two caused turnovers … freshman Brady Watts went 11-for-18 at the X as he scooped up five ground balls for York … Watts has won 73-of-his-107 face offs in conference play for York … Nash Womack started in goal and made six saves during his 41 minutes of work as he allowed four Falcon goals.
 
Up Next
The Spartans begin their MAC Commonwealth tournament journey on Wednesday afternoon at Kinsley Field. The Spartan opponent will be determined by tomorrow's Eastern-Hood MAC Commonwealth game. First face off on Wednesday is set for 4:00 pm in York.