Strong second-half leads Endicott to 15-9 win over Roger Williams

BEVERLY, Mass. – Trailing 7-6 at halftime, the Endicott men's lacrosse took control of the second half of their game against CCC foe Roger Williams, outscoring the Hawks 9-2 over the third and fourth quarters to earn a 15-9 victory at Endicott Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

The Gulls (10-3, 5-0 CCC) remained unbeaten in conference play as sophomore midfielder Harrison Cotter (Lordship, Conn.) scored all three of his goals in the second half and freshman goalie Cameron Bell (Falmouth, Maine) rebounded from a tough first half to make 10 of his 15 saves over the final 30 minutes of the win. 

Endicott visits last year's opponent in the ECAC DIII New England Championship, the University of New England, on Tuesday, April 16^th for a 7:00 pm game in Biddeford, Maine.

Roger Williams (6-6, 4-1 CCC) got three goals and an assist from junior attacker Jon Nessa (Concord, Mass.) and a total of 19 saves from sophomore goalie Luke Aubrey (Norwalk, Conn.), but the Hawks suffered their second straight loss to a league opponent. Roger Williams hosts Gordon on Wednesday night at 7:00 pm.

Penalties proved to be an issue for Endicott as the Gulls surrendered four goals to Roger Williams on eight man-down situations.  Two of those goals came with under six minutes to go in the first half and Roger Williams on a locked-in man-up situation for a full minute as back-to-back tallies by freshman attacker Tim Kelly (Ridgefield, Conn.) and Nessa gave the Hawks the 7-6 going into halftime.

After Endicott conducted at three-goal run to start the second half to take a 9-7 lead, thanks to goals by sophomore attack Nick Pinciaro (Beverly, Mass.), senior Peter Erickson (Yarmouth, Maine), and Cotter, Roger Williams once again took advantage of Endicott penalties as both Kelly and Ness scored again to knot the score at nine goals apiece with 12:22 remaining in the fourth quarter.

The Gulls regained momentum quickly as graduate student Sam Ozycz (Cheshire, Conn.), despite Endicott still being in a man-down spot, scored his sixth goal of the season to put the Blue and Green up 10-9.

Ozycz's goal sparked a six-goal streak to end the game for Endicott as Cotter scored twice, both junior Chris Murphy (Holden, Mass.) and sophomore Jonathan Morgan (Lake Panamoka, N.Y.) netted their second of the game each, and junior Chris Janelle (Falmouth, Maine) beat the goalie for his first score of the season.

Ozycz won 18-of-28 face-off attempts with a team-high nine ground balls.  Junior defensemen Lucas Paratore (Wenham, Mass.) and Breck Merritt (Weston, Mass.) both caused two turnovers each while combining for 11 groundballs.  Fellow defensemen Anthony Martigenetti (Winchester, Mass.), Ryan Sutherland (Sudbury, Mass.), and long-stick midfielder Kyle Burke (Haverhill, Mass.) all had two caused turnovers in the win.

Roger Williams junior midfielder John Ricciardi (Duxbury, Mass.) tied teammate Patrick Holland (Wilton, Conn.) for a team-high six groundballs with Ricciardi totaling three caused turnovers.  Ricciardi also scored twice in the game. 

Hawks senior attacker Drew Beck (South Salem, N.Y.) had a four-point game with a goal and three assists in the loss.  Erickson and Pinciaro both had two assists in the game to go along with their goals for Endicott.