BEVERLY, Mass. – Freshman goalie Cameron Bell (Falmouth, Maine) made 10 saves in the cage and nearly recorded the first Endicott men's lacrosse shutout since 2005 as the Gulls defeated Salve Regina 21-1 at Endicott Stadium on Saturday afternoon. Endicott improved remained unbeaten in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) games at 4-0 and moved to 8-3 overall.
The Gulls host the #4 ranked team in the country, Tufts University, on Tuesday, April 9th at 7:00 pm at Endicott Stadium. Endicott is 2-10 all-time versus the Jumbos with their most recent win coming two seasons ago when Tufts was ranked #1 in NCAA DIII.
Salve Regina (3-8, 0-3 CCC) dropped their fourth straight game and saw their only goal of the game scored by freshman attacker Sharp Jones (Scituate, Mass.) off an assist from sophomore attacker Jack Murray (Warren, N.J.) with 9:29 remaining in the fourth quarter. The Seahawks next take on conference rival Nichols on Wednesday, April 10th at home.
Endicott sophomore midfielder Harrison Cotter (Lordship, Conn.)scored three unassisted goals in the first quarter and ended up with a game-high six points to lead the Blue and Green's offensive outburst. Cotter's first quarter output helped the Gulls jump out to a 5-0 lead. Later in the game, Cotter would score a man-up goal, with an assist to senior Connor McCormack (Norwalk, Conn.), to put the third quarter scoreboard at 14-0 in favor of Endicott and in the fourth, netted his fourth unassisted goal of the game to put Endicott ahead 17-0.
Throughout the game, Endicott was able to maintain possession thanks to graduate student face-off specialist and midfielder Sam Ozycz (Cheshire, Conn.) who won 21-of-23 attempts, scooped 19 groundballs, and his fourth goal of the season. Ozycz has now successfully converted 72.5% of his face-off attempts while leading the nation in groundballs per game at 13.2.
Endicott also got significant offensive contribution from sophomore attacker Nick Pinciaro (Beverly, Mass.) and Connor McCormack who totaled five and four points, respectively. Pinciaro scored four times with an assist while McCormack netted a hat trick with an assist. Two players netted two goals in this game in junior Jake Heger (Longmeadow, Mass.) and senior Chris Murphy (Holden, Mass.) while senior midfielder Nick Togneri (Longmeadow, Mass.) and freshman attacker Austin Hughes (Wyoming, Ohio) both scored their first goals of the season.
Endicott's defensemen also had impressive days as seniors Anthony Martignetti (Winchester, Mass.), Kyle Burke (Haverhill, Mass.), and Ryan Sutherland (Sudbury, Mass.) as well as junior Breck Merritt (Manchester, Mass) all had two caused turnovers.
