JOHNSON, Vt.—The Johnson State College Badgers fell to North Atlantic Conference (NAC) foe Maine Maritime Academy 19-9 Saturday morning in a men's lacrosse tilt at Johnson's Mineart Fields. The Badgers slip to 0-4 overall, 0-3 in the NAC while the Mariners advance to 2-6, 2-1.

Johnson's Alan Bickings (Waterville, Vt. / Lamoille) paced the Badgers with three goals. His teammates Ryan Belen (Northvale, N.J. / Northern Valley) and freshman Andrew Neddo (Barre, Vt. / Spaulding) tallied two goals apiece while Randy Strand (Flanders, N.J. / Roxbury) and Taner Cross (East Montpelier, Vt. / U-32) each supplied one goal towards the Badger's effort. Maxx Connolly (Rollinsford, N.H. / St. Thomas Aquinas) picked up 5 groundballs for the hosts.

For the visitors, Nicholas Betti lead MMA's offense with six goals, followed by Alex Hermes (4 goals), Nick Snelling (3 goals) and Thomas Houle, Bronson Guimond and Jason Smith all providing two goals towards the Mariner's win.

Johnson's Neddo started the game with a goal off of a Belen assist to give the Badgers a 1-0 lead with 10:16 left in the first quarter. The Mariner's answered when Houle found Hermes who netted the visitor's first goal at 8:56 followed by an unassisted Guimond goal just three minutes later giving the Mariners a 2-1 lead with just over 3 minutes left in the period. The hosts fired back netting a goal from Bickings at the 2:17 mark and then another from Cross closing the period 3-2, Johnson's advantage.  

The Badgers used their man-up opportunity with a Bickings goal just seven seconds into the quarter brining their lead to 4-2. The Mariners took control the rest of the period scoring five unanswered goals giving them a 7-4 advantage heading into the half.  

Johnson tied things up in the third period 7-7 after an unassisted goal from Strand at the 7:53 mark but the Mariner's powered through the next period and a half going on to outscore the hosts 12-2 bringing the final score to 19-9.  

Senior goalie Erick Milles picked up the win for Maine Maritime with 10 saves while Johnson's Zach Jerome (Waterford, Conn. / Waterford) took the loss despite 12 saves.

The Badgers return to action tomorrow hosting Husson at 10:00am for another NAC contest as the Mariners travel to Lyndon State for a 12:00pm face-off.