PURCHASE, NY – Entering Saturday afternoon's regular season finale at Manhattanville, the Maritime College men's lacrosse team knew that if it won by at least five goals, it would earn the No. 1 seed and homefield advantage in the Skyline Conference Tournament.  Mission accomplished.  The Privateers (10-6, 6-1 Skyline) shut out the Valiants (8-9, 4-3 Skyline) in the second half to notch a 23-9 victory at GoValiants.com Field and clinch the top spot.

Ryan Brice (Wall, NJ) got Maritime on the board just 50 seconds into the game, but Manhattanville responded with three straight goals to take a 3-1 lead.  Parker Reilly (West Islip, NY) scored three times in less than a minute, though, and Patrick Schnell (Jericho, NY) added another tally to give the Privateers a 5-3 lead with 6:36 left in the first quarter.  After the Valiants tied it with back-to-back goals, Charles Gerace (Rocky Point, NY) and Charles Longo (Bellport, NY) found the back of the net to put Maritime in front, 7-6, at the end of the first quarter.

Longo's tally started a 5-0 run, as the Privateers opened up an 11-6 advantage.  Matt Bundy found the back of the net just before halftime to pull Manhattanville within 14-9, but that would prove to be the Valiants' last goal of the game.  Maritime outscored Manhattanville 9-0 in the second half to wrap up the 23-9 win and secure the No. 1 seed for the fifth consecutive time.

Reilly had six goals to finish the regular season with 67.  He added two assists and eight ground balls.  Longo, meanwhile, tallied 10 points on five goals and five assists.  Brice contributed four goals, while Gerace posted three goals and an assist.  Luke Caliendo (North Babylon, NY) and Schnell each recorded two goals and two assists.

Kieran Hendry (East Northport, NY) picked up a career-high 23 ground balls, the second-most for a single game in program history, as the Privateers held a 57-30 edge in that category.  Joseph Bruno (East Islip, NY) went 21-for-32 on faceoffs and corralled five ground balls.  Goalkeeper Michael Monahan (Ronkonkoma, NY) (3-2) was credited with 13 saves in the win.

For the Valiants, Sean Larkin had a hat trick and Nick Cornelia recorded three points on two goals and an assist.  Nick Corace finished with a goal and three assists to go along with four ground balls, and Jarod Wilmoth collected a team-best five ground balls.  Cody Johnston (2-1) made 16 saves in goal and took the loss.

Maritime finished in a three-way tie for first place with Merchant Marine and Farmingdale, with the teams all going 1-1 against each other.  However, the Privateers own the tiebreaker by virtue of having a better goal differential in conference games than both the Mariners (10-4, 6-1 Skyline) and Rams (14-3, 6-1 Skyline), who will play each other in the semifinals on Tuesday.  The other semifinal will be a rematch of Saturday's Maritime-Manhattanville matchup.

This year's Skyline Tournament has a new format in which the No. 1 seed will host all three games.  The semifinals are scheduled for Tuesday at Reinhart Field, with No. 2 Merchant Marine taking on No. 3 Farmingdale at 5 p.m., followed by No. 1 Maritime vs. No. 4 Manhattanville at 8 p.m.  The winners will meet on Friday night in the Skyline Championship Game.