WENHAM, Mass. – The #8 Endicott men's lacrosse team will enter their regular season showdown with CCC rival Western New England with an unblemished 6-0 record in conference play after the Gulls handed Gordon a 23-11 defeat on Wednesday night at the Brigham Athletic Complex. Beverly native Nick Pinciaro regained his spot atop the CCC scoring leaderboard as he buried five goals past the Gordon goalie.
Endicott (11-3, 6-0 CCC) and Western New England (10-4, 6-0 CCC) will meet on Saturday, April 18th in Springfield for a 4:00 p.m. face-off. In 2014, the Gulls erupted for a 20-6 win over the Golden Bears in their regular season meeting but Western New England exacted revenge in the CCC Championship with a 13-8 victory to earn the league's automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament. Endicott would their first-ever at-large bid.
Pinciaro's six points (5g, 1a) led an Endicott attack that outshot Gordon 50-34 and maintained possession throughout the game with a 38-25 groundball advantage and 19-of-33 face-off wins from sophomore Tommy Hughes (Coram, N.Y.). Senior attacker Kyle Weber (West Hartford, Conn.) added five points on four goals and an assist, sophomore attacker Colin Bannon (Westport, Conn.) scored three times and assisted on another goal, and senior captain Harrison Cotter (Lordship, Conn.) netted two goals and dished out two assists.
Seven other Endicott players recorded points in the win including sophomore attacker Will Jennings (Danvers, Mass.) who continued his breakout season with two goals and an assist. Senior midfielder Jonathan Morgan (Lake Panamoka, N.Y.) and junior attacker Mitchell Tapley (Falmouth, Maine) each contributed with a goal and an assist while senior Jeremy Morgan (Lake Panamoka, N.Y.), sophomore Kyle Wallack (Madison, Conn.), and freshman Doug Richardson (Arlington, Mass.) all beat the goalie once.
In goal for Endicott, junior Cameron Bell (Falmouth, Maine) earned the win after making 12 saves and allowing six goals in three quarters of action.
Hughes would lead all players with 11 groundballs thanks to his face-off control. Seven other Endicott players registered multiple groundballs in the win including four from Bell and two apiece from defensemen Fabrian Brunner (Niskayuna, N.Y.) and Ben Katzen (Blauvelt, N.Y.). Freshman long-stick midfielder Joshua Heidrick (Littleton, Colo.) caused two turnovers on the defensive end.
As a team, Endicott successfully converted 20-of-22 clear attempts and scored on one of two man-up opportunities, a Weber goal 2:16 into the second half from Pinciaro. The Gulls man-down defense was stellar, shutting out the Scots on six chances with the extra-man.
