CCC Athletes of the Week – Week Ending April 19th
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – For the third time this season, the nation's ninth-ranked Endicott men's lacrosse team has won both the CCC's Offensive and Defensive Player of the Week awards as senior attacker Nick Pinciaro (Beverly, Mass.) and junior goalie Cameron Bell (Falmouth, Maine) collected the weekly honors. For Pinciaro, this is his fifth CCC Offensive Player of the Week award this season and the second CCC Defensive Player of the Week award for Bell.
Endicott went 2-1 last week, rebounding from a Tuesday night lopsided loss to #3 Tufts to take two critical conference games over Gordon (W, 23-11) and Western New England (W, 19-9) to remain unbeaten in their CCC schedule at 7-0. The Blue and Green are 12-3 overall and ranked fifth in the NCAA's North regional rankings behind RIT, Tufts, Amherst, and Middlebury.
Pinciaro, the CCC's leading goal scorer and second-leading point-getter, continued his career campaign with eight goals and four assists on the week to pull within one goal of 50 on the season and 10 points of 200 for his career. The 200-point plateau would make him just the 10th player in Endicott men's lacrosse program history to reach the milestone.
Pinciaro's offensive output began in Endicott's 23-11 win over Gordon with five goals and an assist against his team's crosstown rivals. Pinciaro's five goals came on just nine shots and he also added two groundballs. On Saturday against fellow conference unbeaten Western New England, Pinciaro totaled six points on three goals and three assists to help the Blue and Green to a 19-9 win over the Golden Bears. Pinciaro scored his 11th man-up goal of the season which gave him 18 for his career and put him in a tie with former Gull Brandon Dube '09 for second on the all-time list.
Bell responded from a slow outing against Tufts to help shutdown Gordon and Western New England. In three quarters of work against the Scots, Bell allowed just six goals and made 12 saves with four groundballs. Against the Golden Bears, Bell surrendered nine goals but got one back himself with his first career goal going the length of the field to beat his Western New England counterpart. Bell made 10 saves with seven groundballs in the 19-9 Endicott win over Western New England.
Endicott plays their regular season finale on Wednesday afternoon against CCC opponent Curry at 4:00 p.m. at Endicott Stadium before CCC Tournament action begins. The quarterfinal round, which is bypassed by the top two seeds, is scheduled for Saturday, April 25th.
