April 5, 2008
BEVERLY, Mass. - The 17th-ranked Endicott College men's lacrosse team improved to 3-0 in The Commonwealth Coast Conference, as the Gulls topped cross-town rival Gordon College, 7-2, on Saturday afternoon in Beverly, Massachusetts. The win moves the Gulls to 7-2 overall, while Gordon slips to 3-5 and 2-2 in TCCC play.
Eddie O'Reilly (Beverly, Mass.) scored the only goal of the first quarter as he took a feed from Brandon Dube (Danvers, Mass.) and beat Brett Becker (Sparta, N.J.) at the 8:02 mark for a 1-0 lead. O'Reilly would strike again just 24 seconds into the second frame, converting a Nick Cosco (Londonderry, N.H.) pass into a two-goal advantage.
The Gulls blew the game wide open as Nick Cosco scored consecutive goals in a span of 17 seconds. At 13:17 of the second quarter, Dube got his hands free at the back X, finding Cosco from 15 yards out who planted a seed stick-side high. John Ortolani (Billerica, Mass.) cleanly won the ensuing face-off and found Cosco alone on the fast break, allowing the junior to bury a shot past the Gordon netminder for the 4-0 lead.
Gordon got on the board just before halftime as Jordan MacIntosh (Oakville, Ontario) found the back of the net off a pass from Andrew Kirkaldy (Red Deer, Alberta). Endicott would lead 4-1 at the intermission.
Nick Cosco continued his impressive afternoon as he had a hand in the final three goals of the day for the Gulls. The Endicott attackman notched an unassisted tally to open the scoring in the third quarter, and then fed Brandon Dube on the goal mouth for an easy layup. Cosco capped-off his scoring line as he took a sweeping pass from John Curtis (Chelmsford, Mass.) and converted it for his fourth strike of the day.
The Endicott defense, ranked 13th in the nation in goals against per game, locked it down in the second half as the Blue and Green allowed just eight total shots in quarters three and four. Gordon's only goal of the second stanza came off the stick of Trevor Peterson (West Lebanon, N.H.). Phil Masterson (South Hamilton, Mass.) was credited with an assist.
Cosco finished the day with four goals and two assists for a game-high six points. Eddie O'Reilly had two goals while Dube finished with a goal and two assists. Face-off man John Ortolani went 10-of-13, while goalkeeper Eric Hagarty (Sudbury, Mass.) finished the day with eight saves. The Gulls outshot the visitors, 40-19, and held Gordon to just 61% in its clear game (16-of-26).
Gordon goalkeeper Brett Becker made 11 saves, including an unbelievable diving stop cross-crease to deny Endicott's Chris Cotter (Fairfield, Conn.). Phil Masterson and Stuart Knechtle (New Canaan, Conn.) each had a game-high seven ground balls in the loss.
Endicott looks to continue its winning ways on Tuesday evening as the Gulls host Tufts University for a 7:00 p.m. face-off at Endicott Stadium. Gordon gets back to work on Wednesday as the Fighting Scots head to Newport, R.I. for a 4:00 p.m. tilt with Salve Regina.
