BOSTON, Mass. – Junior Steve Glover (Marstons Mills, Mass.) scored five goals and added five assists and sophomore Ryan Coakley (Flemington, N.J.) added three goals and five assists to help pace the Wentworth Institute of Technology men's lacrosse team to a 16-6 win over Nichols in Commonwealth Coast Cnference action on Sweeney Field.
The win snapped an eight-game league losing streak for the Leopards, who picked up their first CCC win since defeating Anna Maria, 12-8, on April 21, 2011.
Nichols would take a 1-0 lead 1:25 into the contest when sophomore Michael Bane (North Grafton, Mass.) beat Leopard junior Jared Proulx (Nashua, N.H.). Coakley evened the score, from Glover, with a goal with 11:56 left. Forty-one seconds later the Bison took a 2-1 lead on a freshman Anthony Verville (Portland, Maine) goal and Verville put Nichols up 3-1 with a goal two minutes later.
Sophomore Michael Cushera (Waltham, Mass.) fed junior Chris Kipp (Scarborough, Maine) to pull the Leopards back within one, scoring with 5:02 left. Verville put Nichols back up by two with has third of the game with 2:59 left. However, that would be the last Bison goal for nearly the next two and a half quarters as the Black & Gold held the Bison off the scoreboard for the next 36:52.
Cushera and Kipp scored within 2:17 of each other to tie the game at 4-all after one quarter and freshman Nick Parent (Windham, N.H.) and Glover scored two, late, second quarter goals to give the hosts a -4 lead at the break.
The Leopards scored six times in the third quarter, with Glover scoring two and Cushera, Coakley, Parent, and senior Sean Paradis (Pelham, N.H.) scoring a goal apiece to make it a 12-4 game.
Glover scored 47 seconds into the fourth quarter to push the lead to 13-4 before Nichols broke its scoring drought with a goal from senior Marc Miller (Trumbull, Conn.) with 11:07 left. Kipp made it 14-5 with 10:26 left before Bane scored his second of the game with 8:51 left to make it 14-6. Coakley and Parent scored late goals for Wentworth to round out the scoring.
Kipp finished with three goals and an assists, Parent had three goals, Cushera added two goals and an assist, and sophomore Dillon Lynch (Southwick, Mass,) had three assists. Freshman Tim Parlato (Needham, Mass.) won 11 of 19 face-offs and collected 11 ground balls, while Glover had seven ground balls and caused three turnovers. Proulx finished with 14 saves.
Verville and Bane accounted for five of the Bison's six goals, while senior Macaulay Gillis (Northborough, Mass.) had two assists. Miller, who won eight face-offs, picked up six ground balls. Freshman Seth Drouin (Madison, Conn.) made 16 saves in the loss. Wentworth held a 43-34 shot advantage and a 50-36 ground ball advantage. The Leopards were 3-for-8 on man-up opportunities.
With the win the Leopards improve to 6-1 overall (1-1 CCC) and host Endicott Tuesday night. Nichols falls to 2-5 (0-2) and hosts Western New England that same night.
