CASTINE, Maine – Despite a late game surge, Castleton dealt Maine Maritime Academy its first conference loss of the season by a 10-8 margin on Saturday afternoon at Ritchie Field. 

The Spartans outshot the Mariners just 42-35 in the contest when but 19-for-25 on clear attempts and picked up 38 ground balls to improve to 7-2 and 5-0 in the North Atlantic Conference. MMA grabbed 42 ground balls and won 14 of 20 faceoffs but dropped to 4-6 and 4-1 in conference action. 

The Mariners actually jumped out to an early 2-0 lead at 6:59 in the first half, following goals from Nicholas Betti and A.J. Larrabee with a pair of assists from Mike Fuller. Castleton answered with back-to-back goals from Taylor Swarter and Micky Prozinski, though Peter Moore put Maine Maritime ahead 3-2 on a goal with 24 seconds remaining in the first quarter. 

Zach Davidson tied the game up 3-3 at 11:43 in the second quarter and he added one more goal and two assists to Taylor Swarter to push the Castleton lead to 6-3 at the break. 

The Spartans opened up the second half with a pair of goals from Mike Ruggiero and Swarter, but the Mariners found their momentum as Betti scored with four seconds remaining in the third quarter on an assist from Bronson Guimond to cut it to 8-4. 

Betti closed the gap to 8-5 with a goal at 13:51 remaining in the fourth quarter, but the Spartans answered back on a goal from Davidson to stretch the lead once again, to four goals (9-5). 

Guimond and Moore teamed up for three-straight goals to make it a one-goal game, 9-8, with 4:44 remaining in the game, but Louis Alhage added an insurance for the Spartans with 98 seconds left to secure the two-goal win. 

Moore ended the afternoon with the hat trick and an assist to lead the Mariner attack, while Guimond contributed a team-high three assists and a goal, and Betti picked up a hat trick. Tim Grant and Jack Tragert scooped up a game-high nine ground balls each, with Tragert going 11-of-17 on the face-off and Grant adding a team-leading, three caused turnovers. 

Swarter led all scorers with four goals and three assists and a team-high three caused turnovers, while Davidson added a hat trick of his own to go along with five assists and four ground balls. Ruggiero added one goal, one assist sand three ground balls. 

James Wilgus was strong in net, stopping 11 shots for the Mariners while Sam Polas also stopped 11 shots in net for the Spartans to secure his third victory over the year. 

Castleton returns to action on Wednesday when the team hosts reigning NAC Champion New England College at 7 pm.