BALTIMORE – Junior attackman Ryan Demato produced his third hat trick of the season, but the UMBC men's lacrosse team dropped a 10-6 America East decision against the UAlbany Great Danes on Saturday afternoon at UMBC Stadium.

Demato, who also added a game-high two assists for a career-best five points, leads the team in goals (16) and points (20).  Senior linemate Connor Chick added a pair of goals, while senior defender Dante Marinello recorded UMBC's other tally.

Goalie Connor McMahon kept the Retrievers within striking distance as the redshirt senior turned aside 11 shots and was credited with four ground balls. Junior midfielder Justin Webber picked up a game-high five ground balls for the second time in the past three contests and recorded his first career assist. Senior face-off specialist Alex Steers went 7 of 15 from the face-off X and scooped a pair of ground balls.

Demato provided the Retrievers with their only lead of the game when he scored an unassisted goal just 2:41 into the contest. The visitors answered with two straight markers to grab a 2-1 advantage with 10:38 left in the opening quarter.  Koleton Marquis evened the game at the 11:11 mark off an assist from Silas Richmond, and the Great Danes went ahead on an unassisted tally from Alex Pfeiffer.

Demato struck again with 9:45 remaining in the opening frame to even the score for the final time at 2-2. Junior attackman Jake Kucinski was credited with his ninth helper of the season. The visitors scored two straight times to grab a 4-2 advantage as Kevin Carney and Richmond hit the target. Demato scored his final goal of the day after taking a feed from Webber to trim the deficit to 4-3 with 4:38 left, but Ben Wimmer answered at the 2:21 mark to give the visitors a 5-3 advantage at the end of the first quarter.

UAlbany (4-4, 2-0 AE) scored the first two goals in the second quarter to take a 7-3 lead with 11:55 left before halftime. Ryan Doherty and Wally Swiney scored unassisted goals just thirty-four seconds apart.  Demato found Marinello with 3:23 left before the break to cut the lead to 7-4.

The Great Danes extended their lead to their largest of the day, 9-4, after Richmond and Justin Lee scored nine seconds apart early in the third quarter.  Neither team scored for the remainder of the frame.

UMBC (1-6, 0-2 AE) managed to close within 9-6 after Chick scored consecutive goals in the fourth quarter. His first was a laser to the upper right corner with 12:35 remaining, followed by another with 4:37 left off a feed from Demato.

Richmond, who led the visitors with three goals, put the game away with his final tally with just over a minute left in the contest. Brady Smith made 11 saves in goal.

UAlbany held a slight 34-31 advantage in shots

The Retrievers will host Bryant next Saturday at noon.