Men's Lacrosse Collects CCC Offensive and Defensive Player of the Weeks Honors

Men's Lacrosse Collects CCC Offensive and Defensive Player of the Weeks Honors

CCC Athletes of the Week –Week Ending April 12th

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Endicott junior attacker Nick Pinciaro (Beverly, Mass.) collected his fourth CCC Offensive Player of the Week award and sophomore face-off specialist Tommy Hughes (Coram, N.Y.) earned the CCC Defensive Player of the Week nod for a Gulls squad that cruised to a 2-0 week with wins over conference opponents University of New England and Nichols.

Pinciaro poured in 11 points in two games on eight goals and three assists as he set a new single-season high for goals (41) while Hughes was dominant at the "x" winning 41-of-45 face-offs with 18 groundballs.

In Endicott's 20-8 win over UNE, Pinciaro scored five times and assisted on two more goals and he helped the Blue and Green race out to a 6-0 after the first quarter and a 16-2 advantage by halftime. He made his presence felt on man-up situations by assisting on senior teammate Harrison Cotter's (Lordship, Conn.) only goal of the game to give Endicott a 5-0 first quarter lead and in the second scored his ninth man-up goal of the year off an assist from sophomore attacker Colin Bannon (Westport, Conn.) for the 10-1 Gulls lead.

On Senior Day against Nichols, a game that the Gulls won 19-10 after going up 16-2 by halftime before integrating some of their reserves, Pinciaro scored three times and registered his 15th assist of the year on another man-up goal by Cotter late in the fourth quarter. Pinciaro would also net an extra-man goal from Bannon midway through the first quarter to make it an 8-0 Endicott lead.

Hughes scooped nine groundballs in each win this week and started off the week 23-of-25 on face-offs against UNE before winning 18-of-20 versus his Bison opposition. Hughes also added a goal, his third of the season, in the first quarter of the Nichols game. The sophomore elevated his face-off totals to 188-of-301 on the year for a .625 win-percentage while averaging 8.1 groundballs per game.

Pinciaro, Hughes, and the Endicott men's lacrosse team hosts Tufts on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. for a showdown of top-10 nationally-ranked programs. The week eight USILA Division III Coaches' Poll has not  yet released their latest rankings.