Lakewood, N.J. - Georgian Court University men's lacrosse, coming off Saturday's stellar 12-10 opening day road victory at Southern New Hampshire, returned to to campus Thursday to host #5 Mercy College, marking the Lions' 2019 home debut. 

After falling behind, 5-0, after the first period of action, GCU proceeded to fire off five of the contest's next six tallies to slice the deficit to 6-5 with 0:04 remaining in the third. The Mavericks added a a pair of insurance efforts in the fourth frame, courtesy of Dominic Scorcia (So.-Franklin Square, N.Y.) and Tommy McPartland (Jr.-Farmingdale, N.Y.) at 13:37 and 3:12 respectively, to secure the eventual 8-6 non-conference road win.

Mercy stays undefeated after the victory at 3-0 while GCU evens its ledger at 1-1 on the year.

McPartland netted a hat trick and two assists for the victors while JoJo Janavey (Fr.-Shrub Oak, N.Y.) registered a pair of goals and helpers for four total points. Patrick Quinn contributed a hat trick of his own for Georgian Court while Randy Collins, Garven Hadden IV, and Devin Bell poured in their first goals as Lions.

Hadden, a senior All-CACC defenseman, scooped up a ground ball off a Mercy turnover in Georgian Court territory and sprinted the length of the field before firing home his maiden career tally with four ticks remaining in the third period, much to the delight of his teammates.

Ryan Gibbons (Sr.-Seaford, N.Y.) collected nine saves on 15 shots-on-goal by the Lions while GCU's Austin Geissel (18 saves) suffered the complete-game setback.

The Lions return to action Tuesday afternoon with another 2:30 p.m. non-conference home game, this time vs. Wheeling Jesuit University.