Men's Lacrosse Collects CCC Offensive and Defensive Player of the Weeks Honors
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Endicott junior attacker Nick Pinciaro (Beverly, Mass.) collected his fourth CCC Offensive Player of the Week award and sophomore face-off specialist Tommy Hughes (Coram, N.Y.) earned the CCC Defensive Player of the Week nod for a Gulls squad that cruised to a 2-0 week with wins over conference opponents University of New England and Nichols.
CCC Athletes of the Week –Week Ending April 12th
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Endicott junior attacker Nick Pinciaro (Beverly, Mass.) collected his fourth CCC Offensive Player of the Week award and sophomore face-off specialist Tommy Hughes (Coram, N.Y.) earned the CCC Defensive Player of the Week nod for a Gulls squad that cruised to a 2-0 week with wins over conference opponents University of New England and Nichols.
Pinciaro poured in 11 points in two games on eight goals and three assists as he set a new single-season high for goals (41) while Hughes was dominant at the "x" winning 41-of-45 face-offs with 18 groundballs.
In Endicott's 20-8 win over UNE, Pinciaro scored five times and assisted on two more goals and he helped the Blue and Green race out to a 6-0 after the first quarter and a 16-2 advantage by halftime. He made his presence felt on man-up situations by assisting on senior teammate Harrison Cotter's (Lordship, Conn.) only goal of the game to give Endicott a 5-0 first quarter lead and in the second scored his ninth man-up goal of the year off an assist from sophomore attacker Colin Bannon (Westport, Conn.) for the 10-1 Gulls lead.
On Senior Day against Nichols, a game that the Gulls won 19-10 after going up 16-2 by halftime before integrating some of their reserves, Pinciaro scored three times and registered his 15th assist of the year on another man-up goal by Cotter late in the fourth quarter. Pinciaro would also net an extra-man goal from Bannon midway through the first quarter to make it an 8-0 Endicott lead.
Hughes scooped nine groundballs in each win this week and started off the week 23-of-25 on face-offs against UNE before winning 18-of-20 versus his Bison opposition. Hughes also added a goal, his third of the season, in the first quarter of the Nichols game. The sophomore elevated his face-off totals to 188-of-301 on the year for a .625 win-percentage while averaging 8.1 groundballs per game.
Pinciaro, Hughes, and the Endicott men's lacrosse team hosts Tufts on Tuesday night at 7:00 p.m. for a showdown of top-10 nationally-ranked programs. The week eight USILA Division III Coaches' Poll has not yet released their latest rankings.