ASTON, Pa. - The Neumann University men's lacrosse team closed out its regular season on Wednesday afternoon, picking up a huge 12-4 victory over visiting Marywood University in Atlantic East Conference action.
 
Max Nice and Emmett Wexler stepped up big for the Knights in the absence of several key players, each scoring four times in the win. Colin Blake and Brett McLaughlin each tallied twice, while Jack Newswanger earned his 600th career face-off win in a dominating night on draws. Brendan Risley also picked up his fifth win of the season in goal with 11 saves.
 
Needing a full-team effort without the services of several key players on Wednesday afternoon, the Knights received a yeoman's effort from everyone who stepped on the field on the day. Needing a win to keep its hopes for a first round bye in the conference playoffs alive, Neumann played a spirited opening quarter. Max Nice was sensational in the stanza, putting the team on his back and carrying them to an early lead with a first period hat trick. The junior opened the scoring at the 12:51 mark before Marywood leveled the contest at 1-1 just over a minute later. Wexler and McLaughlin pushed the hosts ahead with a pair of unanswered goals, but again the Pacers had an answer with 2:51 left to make it 3-2. Nice took over from there, rifling home two tallies late in the period to give the Knights a 5-2 lead after one.
 
Neumann blew the game wide open early in the second, again thanks to Nice and Wexler. Nice recorded his fourth marker of the game just 46 seconds into the frame, followed by a pair of goals from Wexler midway through the frame to make it 8-2 in favor of the Knights with 7:26 left to play in the half. Chris Augustine played the role of facilitator on both of Wexler's goals, assisting on each score. The Pacers got a goal back late in the half to cut the lead back to five, but Neumann would take a comfortable 8-3 lead into halftime.
 
Goals would be a bit harder to come by in the second half, but the Knights continued to keep Marywood at a distance. The Pacers got the first goal of the third quarter to bring the score back to 8-4 at the 7:44 mark, but that was as close as the visitors would get on the night. Neumann tacked on three goals late in the quarter to further extend its lead. Wexler capped off his hat trick with a knuckle ball of a shot at 3:24 to make it 9-4, then Blake found the back of the net twice to bring the score to 11-4 after three. The senior attacker ripped home a man-up marker with just under two minutes left off another feed from Augustine, then put a dagger in the Pacers with just three seconds left in the quarter, burying a fast-break opportunity off an awesome outlet pass from McLaughlin.
 
With the game comfortably in hand in the fourth, Neumann's stellar team defense took over. The Knights sent the visitors back to Scranton with no goals to speak of in the final frame, while also picking up the only goal of the quarter. McLaughlin capped off an outstanding day for himself on both ends of the field with his second goal of the game with 1:47 left to seal the 12-4 win and place the Knights in great position to earn a first round bye in the conference playoffs.
 
Neumann (5-3, 4-2 Atlantic East) will wait patiently to determine its playoff fate. The Knights will clinch the second seed in the conference tournament if Marymount University drops any of its final three contests. If the Saints win all three games they have left, Neumann would be the third seed and host a game in the opening round of the playoffs. Please check back next week for more details on future dates and times for Neumann's playoff games.