Posted: Feb 24, 2010
BEVERLY, Mass. – The 20th-ranked Endicott men’s lacrosse team served Anna Maria College an unfriendly welcome to The Commonwealth Coast Conference, as the Gulls smashed the visiting AMCATS, 21-1, in the season-opener for both teams on a wet and cold Wednesday afternoon in Beverly, Mass. Endicott, who led 15-0 at halftime, outshot AMC at a 41-9 clip on the day.
The Gulls opened the afternoon by pumping in five goals in the game’s first seven minutes, including two strikes by \#Brendan McCarthy\# (Arlington, Vt.). McCarthy’s first tally came as he dodged from behind the net, turning his defender on goal-line extended, and then beat Anna Maria goalkeeper Bryan Bedard (Dracut, Mass.) with a high-low stick fake. The EC junior attackman then notched his second of the day off a nifty backdoor pass from \#Jack Curtis\# (Chelmsford, Mass.). The Endicott offense continued in the first quarter as \#Brian Vincent\# (Norwalk, Conn.) also chipped in a pair of goals and an assist before the first 15:00 minutes had concluded.
Anna Maria finally got on the board in the fourth quarter when junior midfielder Luke Biggins (Sudbury, Mass.) snuck a bid past freshman \#Will Lomas\# (Weston, Conn.) - one of five netminders on the day for the Gulls - under the crossbar to make it a 19-1 game. \#Justin Sproul\# (Londonderry, N.H.) and \#Colin Prescott\# (Norwalk, Conn.) tacked on a goal apiece to round out the scoring.
\#Jack Curtis\# and \#Connor McCormack\# (Norwalk, Conn.) each finished the day with four points, Curtis on a goal and three assists and McCormack on three goals and one helper. \#Harry Holden\# (Duxbury, Mass.) added a pair of goals while Sproul also finished with two. Five Endicott goalies combined for the victory.
Anna Maria’s Bryan Bedard finished with three saves before giving way to freshman Andrew Ellis (Fitchburg, Mass.), who came on to stop five of the 11 shots he faced.
Endicott won 20-of-26 face-off opportunities and cleared the ball at a perfect 12-12 clip (AMC finished just 7-of-22 in clearing situations). The Gulls also had 44 groundballs to the AMCATS 20 and forced 24 Anna Maria turnovers.
Endicott (1-0, 1-0 TCCC) returns to action on Saturday afternoon when the Gulls will play host to the Ducks of the Stevens Institute of Technology at 1:00 p.m. Anna Maria looks to rebound on March 6th when it hosts Norwich.
