LEICESTER, Mass. – Freshman Nick Johnson (Amherst, Mass.) scored three goals and added an assist while junior Peter Christiansen (Seattle, Wash.) and sophomore Rob Holden (East Longmeadow, Mass.) scored a pair of goals each as the Clark University men's lacrosse team defeated Wentworth Institute of Technology, 10-7, in the season opener for both teams.
Wentworth scored the first two goals of the contest as sophomore Alec Paradis (Pelham, N.H.) scored 3:03 into the contest before junior Ryan Coakley (Flemington, N.J.) set up freshman Sam Bonsaint (Hampton, N.H.) for his first collegiate marker with 7:59 left in the quarter.
The Cougars got on the board with 6:43 left when Johnson scored his first of the game before the Leopards upped their lead to 3-1 with a man-up goal off the stick of sophomore Nick Parent (Windham, N.H.) with 5:35 left, assisted by junior Michael Cushera (Waltham, Mass.). Clark would pull back within one when Holden scored a man-down goal with 4:09 left.
Clark scored all three goals of the second quarter as freshman John Goracy (Lumberton, N.J.) scored 45 seconds into the quarter to even the score. With 12:00 left Johnson scored to give the Cougars a 4-3 lead and Johnson would set up Christiansen with 2:00 left in the half to increase the lead to 5-3.
The Cougars continued their 7-0 run by scoring the first three goals of the second half as Christiansen scored a man-up goal 20 seconds in and sophomore Ryan Moore (West Hartford, Conn.) and junior Keegan Callahan (Tewksbury, Mass.) scored goals 41 seconds apart to make it an 8-3 game. Wentworth ended the run with 10:54 left on a goal from junior Dillon Lynch (Southwick, Mass.) and freshman AJ DiMasi (Trumbull, Conn.) netted his first collegiate marker with 4:30 left in the quarter.
Paradis set up Cushera on a man advantage early in the fourth quarter to cut Clark's lead to 8-6, however that would be as close as the Leopards would get. Johnson scored 17 seconds after Cushera's goal to push the lead to three and Callahan set up Holden to make it a 10-6 game with just under six minutes left. Bonsaint closed out the scoring with 3:40 left.
Senior Kevin Ranta (Beverly, Mass.) made 23 saves for the Cougars while senior Jared Proulx (Nashua, N.H.) made 13 stops for Wentworth, which held a 47-35 shot advantage.
Clark had a 42-32 advantage on ground balls with Johnson and junior Ryan Marsh (Oyster Bay, N.Y.) picking up six apiece. Freshman Ty Trebbe (Wilbraham, Mass.) collected a game-high seven ground balls for the Black & Gold.
At the face-off X, the Cougars were 11-for-20 with Marsh winning all 11. Trebbe and sophomore Tim Parlato (Needham, Mass.) accounted for six and three face-offs won, respectively, for Wentwotrh.
Clark heads to Florida for a pair of games next week, beginning with a Tuesday tilt against DeSales. Wentworth is idle until March 9 when the Leopards travel to Colorado College.
