Box Score Madison, N.J. (April 19, 2014) – The Drew University men's lacrosse (5-8, 3-3) senior class said farewell to Ranger Stadium in a conference battle with the United States Merchant Marine Academy Mariners (6-6, 2-4). The Rangers used a seven-goal fourth quarter run to pull away with the 12-7 victory. With the victory, Drew clinched the fourth and final spot in the Landmark Conference playoffs, marking the fifth time in the past seven years the Rangers have made the postseason tournament.
 
The Rangers were victorious for the third straight year when they celebrated Senior Day at Ranger Stadium.
 
"This team has been one of steady improvement," said head coach Thomas Leanos, whose team tied its season high in goals scored and posted its second best turnover rate at 20 on Saturday. "We've lost some people this season that we were going to count on offensively, and we've weathered a lot of storms. These guys have gotten used to playing with each other and we did a great job limiting turnovers today."
 
Senior captain Mike Marone led the Ranger offense in scoring on the afternoon. Marone set a new career-high with seven points on three goals and four assists.
 
"It feels amazing," Marone said. "And we're not done yet. At one point, we were 1-3 in the conference, and we've had a rebirth as a team. After the loss against Scranton, we woke up and were motivated to turn this thing around."
 
Senior Andrew Somps helped Marone pace the Ranger attack closing his career in Ranger Stadium with three goals and one assist.
 
The Rangers jumped out to an early 1-0 lead just :13 seconds into the game when Marone swept across the field to his strong left hand and fired a worm-burner beating the goalie to the bottom right corner. The Mariners answered at the 8:34 mark on a man-up goal from Phil Walker. The Rangers countered just two minutes later when Somps stung the upper right corner on a man-up situation off a feed from Marone. Drew scored the only goal of the second quarter when Marone found a wide-open Tom Cotroneo on the back-side. The Rangers took a 3-1 lead into the half.
 
The Rangers jumped out to a 5-1 lead scoring the only two goals of the third quarter when Steven Cola found a wide-open Nate Kotarra, who finished the day with two goals and two assists, in front of the net and a minute later when Kotarra found a wide-open Somps on the left wing who ripped a shot into the upper right corner. The Mariners scored the first goal of the fourth quarter drawing the game to three, 5-2 but would get no closer for the rest of the game.
 
Drew opened up a seven-goal lead scoring the next four goals of the contest. Marone had a hand in every goal of the Ranger run scoring one and assisting on the other three. 
"When I've been scouted this year, my opponents think that I'm all right," said Marone, who leads the team in goals with 19 this year. "I've had a lot of success having guys force me to the right, then I go under to the right and come back to the left. I also have to give a lot of credit to [Assistant] Coach [Jason] Reig, who has made a lot of adjustments with our offense to help me feed the ball on the attack."
 
The Mariners stormed back by scoring four of the next five goals. Geoff Harty and Phil Walker, who combined for each of the four goals, highlighted the Merchant Marine run. Senior Aaron Davis scored his 10th goal of the season to put the Rangers out in front 11-6.
 
Kyle Mariboe made his eleventh start of the season for the Rangers in between the pipes. The senior goalkeeper allowed seven goals and made 13 saves for Drew picking up his fifth victory of the season.
 
"Kyle was fantastic in goal today," Leanos said. "His defense did a great job in man-to-man, and switched to zone effectively, as well. We kept them off balance and forced them to constantly make adjustments. "
 
This season will mark the first postseason appearance since Drew lost to Goucher College in the 2012 Landmark Conference championship game.
 
Before the Landmark Tournament begins with the semifinals on Wednesday, April 30, The Rangers will close out the 2014 regular season at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute – which is receiving votes in the USILA Top 20 poll, on Saturday, April 26 at 1 p.m.