MIDDLETOWN, R.I. – The #15 Endicott men's lacrosse team jumped out to an 8-0 lead en route to a 14-8 victory over CCC opponent Salve Regina on Saturday evening as the Gulls improved to 10-3 overall and 6-0 in conference play. The Blue and Green were led by four points from both junior attacker Nick Pinciaro (Beverly, Mass.) and freshman attacker Colin Bannon (Westport, Conn.) as well as 19 face-off wins and 14 ground balls from freshman Tommy Hughes (Coram, N.Y.).
Endicott (10-3, 6-0) now look ahead to a match up with CCC rival Western New England (6-6, 5-0), the only other team in the conference with an unbeaten league record, on Tuesday, April 15th at 7:00 pm in Endicott Stadium. Tuesday's match up will be a rematch of two of the last three CCC Championships including last year's showdown between the Gulls and Golden Bears that saw Western New England outlast Endicott 9-5.
In Saturday's conference game against Salve Regina, Endicott quickly raced out to a 7-0 lead after the first quarter as seven different goal scorers found the back of the net. Junior Kyle Weber (West Hartford, Conn.) started off the scoring 1:33 into the game with the first of his two goals followed by a strike off the stick of junior midfielder Jeremy Morgan (Lake Panamoka, N.Y.), his 24th of the season. After Morgan's goal, Hughes won the ensuing draw and scored his second goal of the season just six seconds later.
Senior defensive midfielder Jonny Kovach (Shaker Heights, Ohio) netted his first of the season, from Bannon, followed 14 seconds later by Jonathan Morgan (Lake Panamoka, N.Y.), unassisted, to make it 5-0. With under four minutes left in the opening quarter, Endicott tacked on two more goals as sophomore Ben Katzen (Blauvelt, N.Y.) scored his first collegiate goal and Bannon tallied his first of two goals with 2:48 remaining in the first.
Three minutes and forty one seconds into the second quarter, Endicott completed their eight goal unanswered streak to start the game as Pinciaro scored an unassisted goal, his first of a hat trick in the win. After two Salve Regina goals made it 8-2, Bannon and Pinciaro scored back-to-back with 50 and 30 seconds remaining to cap of the first half scoring at 10-2.
In the second half, Pinciaro completed his hat trick at the 4:56 mark of the third quarter, freshman attacker Will Jennings (Danvers, Mass.) scored a man-down goal off Harrison Cotter's (Lordship, Conn.) second assist of the game, and Jennings ended the day's scoring with a goal off a pass from Pinciaro with 1:56 remaining in regulation.
Defensively, Endicott was led by junior Ian Knechtle (New Canaan, Conn.) and Weber who both registered three caused turnovers. Graduate student two-way midfielder Peter Erickson (Yarmouth, Maine) added two caused turnovers and Breck Merritt (Weston, Mass.), Jonathan Morgan, and Joshua Tordik (Sayville, N.Y.) each caused one.
Gulls sophomore goalie Cameron Bell (Falmouth, Maine) made 11 saves in net and improved to 10-3 as the team's starter this season.
