March 22, 2007
BEVERLY, MA - The Endicott College men's lacrosse team posted 14 goals for the second time in as many days, downing the Wheaton College Lyons, 14-4, on Thursday night in Beverly, MA. With the win, Endicott improves their record to 3-1, while Wheaton falls to 0-3.
Endicott got on the board just over a minute into the contest as Nick Cosco (Londonderry, NH/Londonderry) received a pass all alone on the crease after a failed Wheaton clearing attempt, beating junior goaltender Jeremy Beech (West Newbury, MA/Governor Dummer) to put the Gulls up 1-0. Eddie O'Reilly (Beverly, MA/Beverly) doubled the home team's lead at the 5:52 mark of the opening quarter as he found the back of the net sweeping from goal-line extended, advancing the Gulls lead to two.
The Lyons fired back just twenty-seconds later, as Chris Hade (Franklin Lakes, NJ/Dwight Englewood) led a fast break to Tim Horan (Cheshire, CT/Cheshire) who quickly skipped the ball cross-crease to Conor Whitney (West Hartford, CT/Kingswood-Oxford) for the lay-up goal. That would serve to be the only tally of the first half for Wheaton, as Endicott responded with nine unanswered goals over the next 20:23 to enter the half up 11-1.
The Gulls put it into cruise control the second half, only attempting five shots over the next thirty minutes of play. Wheaton College capitalized on Endicott's second half penalties, notching man-up goals by Andrew Rohan (South Hadley, MA/Avon Old Farms) and Trey Helms (Cockeysville, MD/Saint Paul's), before closing out the contest with a all-even score from Marco Barbone (Newton, MA/Newton North).
The Gulls Nick Cosco and Dan Ryan (Billerica, MA/Billerica) led the way for the Blue and Green. Cosco netted four goals and added an assist while Ryan pumped in three and notched two helpers in the win. The Endicott defense made a strong presence all evening long, as EC only allowed four goals on the night. The goaltending trio of Sean Kearney (Mahopac, NY/Mahopac), Nate Barry (Chestertown, MD/Gunston) and Eric Hagarty (Sudbury, MA/Kent School) once again stood tall between the pipes, turning in a combined 16 saves in the win. Sophomore midfielder John Ortolani (Billerica, MA/Billerica) was once again strong at the face-off X, posting a dominating 14-20 (70%) performance on Thursday.
Endicott completes a rigorous stretch of three games in four days on Saturday, as the three-time defending Commonwealth Coast Conference champions set out to defend their crown, opening conference play at Roger Williams University on Saturday afternoon at 2:30 PM.
