LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. (NEWS10) — The Siena-Marist rivalry lived up to the hype with a hard-fought, competitive back-and-forth affair, but the Saints allowed the first three goals at the start of the fourth quarter at a critical junction and eventually dropped the game 14-11 to their I-87 rivals from the MAAC on Wednesday afternoon at Hickey Field on the first-ever Gold Rush lacrosse game. 

10 of the game’s 25 goals occurred in a high-octane first quarter where Marist took a 6-4 advantage after one.

The defenses began to settle in from there as Siena trailed just 7-6 at the break and 10-9 entering the fourth quarter. 

The Saints (5-6 overall, 3-4 MAAC) were paced by Ryan McCarthy’s hat trick and Zac Schuette and George Rusnak, who each scored twice. 

But, Marist (5-7 overall, 4-3 MAAC) countered with three goals off the stick of one of the conference’s top scorers in JoJo Pirreca while four others scored twice. 

The loss for Siena snaps its six-game home winning streak at Hickey Field dating back to the 2022 season. Marist has now defeated the Saints seven consecutive times and drew the all-time series even closer with Siena now leading 21-20 in all-time meetings. 

The Saints outshot Marist 51-46 and the Red Foxes held a sliver of an advantage for shots on goals (27-26).  Faceoff wins, ground balls and turnovers were all virtually even on the day as well. 

Fifth-year goalkeeper Christopher Yanchoris made 13 saves while Daniel O’Meara got the start for the Red Foxes, and made 15 saves to pick up his first win on the season.    

Siena defense Trevor Marsala was credited with one caused turnover and is tied with Jack Drilllock (2017-2020), to take a co-share of the all-time program record with 54. 

Siena drops to eighth in the MAAC standings where the top six teams will qualify for postseason play.  They’ll travel to play at Manhattan (9-3 overall, 6-1 MAAC) on Saturday at noon and then will host Mount St. Mary’s (7-6 overall, 6-1 MAAC) on Saturday, April 22 at 1 p.m. for Senior Day at Hickey Field.