BALTIMORE – Junior attackman Ryan Demato scored a career-high five goals and added an assist to lead the UMBC men's lacrosse team to a 16-11 win over NJIT on Saturday at UMBC Stadium. The Retrievers (5-6, 4-2 AE) secured a spot in the America East Tournament with the victory.

Demato, with a career-best 29 goals, has posted six points in back-to-back games and notched at least three goals in six outings this season.

Senior attackman Connor Chick (three goals, assist) posted his third hat trick of the season and second straight. Freshman midfielder Than Souza found the net twice for his first collegiate goals, and junior Jake Kucinski also scored twice. Sophomore Nathan Ward and senior Nick Gutierrez each tallied a career-high three assists. Senior Alex Steers stood out at the faceoff X, winning a season-best 18-of-23 draws with a career-high 11 ground balls and his first career goal.

Defensively, redshirt senior goalie Connor McMahon recorded 10 saves, marking his eighth double-digit performance. Junior Dylan Sharpe caused a career-high five turnovers and picked up a season-best four ground balls, while senior defender Casey Pung collected four ground balls.

Meanwhile, NJIT (5-8, 2-3 AE) was led by Blake Piscitiello with three goals and four assists. Cameron Kurdyla made 17 saves in 60 minutes in goal.

Demato scored the first three goals of the game for the Retrievers, who led 5-2 after the opening quarter.  Chick produced the other two goals, including a tally with just one-tenth of a second remaining on the clock.

The Retrievers dominated the second quarter, outscoring the visitors by a 5-1 margin to grab a 10-3 advantage at intermission.  Kucinski scored both of his goals in the stanza, including a man-up tally to make it 8-3 with 5:51 left.  Maxwell assisted on both of Kucinski's goals.

NJIT made things interesting in the third quarter as they managed to close within 11-8 with 4:24 remaining after Piscitiello's second goal of the frame.  The Highlanders were still within three, 12-9, late in the third, but Demato and freshman attacker Caiden Merritt scored consecutive goals in the final minute to widen the Retrievers' lead to 14-9 after three quarters.

In the fourth quarter, each team scored only twice, preventing NJIT from mounting a comeback.

UMBC will take on Bucknell next Friday in a neutral-site game in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, before competing in the conference tournament on April 30 at UAlbany.