BOSTON, Mass. – Senior Jared Ward (Littleton, Mass.) scored eight points on four goals and four assists to help the Western New England men's lacrosse team pick up a 15-8 win over Wentworth Institute of Technology in the Commonwealth Coast Conference opener for both teams.
With the win the Golden Bears improve to 4-3 on the season while the Leopards fall to 3-7.
Western New England did all the scoring in the first quarter as the Golden Bears jumped out to a 7-0 lead. Ward scored twice while junior John Shahpazian (New Providence, N.J.), freshman Mike Bannon (Edmond, Okla.), sophomore Jared Newall (Stratford, Conn.), senior Tim Breau (Lima, N.Y.), and junior Oskar Djusberg (Abington, Mass.) picked up single markers.
The hosts broke into the scoring column with a goal from senior Matt Larsen (Northborough, Mass.) just 40 seconds into the second quarter and began a 3-0 run which saw freshman Sam Prunier (Hollis, N.H.) and senior Jason Buck (Manlius, N.Y.) each score to bring Wentworth to within 7-3. With 2:03 left in the half, Newall scored to end the Golden Bears' scoring drought and make it an 8-4 game.
Newall's goal began a 3-0 Western New England run which was stopped by sophomore Andrew DiPalma (West Orange, N.J.), who scored with 6:20 left in the third quarter to make it 10-4. The Golden Bears responded with three of their own before goals from Prunier and junior Kyle Doner (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) made it 13-7 after three quarters.
Buck netted his second of the game 23 seconds into the fourth quarter to pull the Black & Gold within six, however, Western New England extended its lead with a pair of goals 3:19 apart before DiPalma completed the scoring with a goal with 22 seconds left.
In addition to Ward, sophomore Conor Tracy (Walpole, Mass.) scored three times, while Shahpazian added two goals and an assist and sophomore Matt Greer (South Windsor, Conn.) had a goal and three assists. Senior Hunter Cocks (Walden, N.Y.) was 19-of-24 at the X and picked up nine ground balls. Ward also had three caused turnovers.
Prunier, DiPalma, and Buck each scored twice for the Leopards with Doner scoring once and assisting on two others and sophomore Ben Coakley (Flemington, N.J.) recording three assists. Freshman Sean Lazzaro (Franklin, Mass.) had four ground balls and three caused turnovers.
Junior Sean McCusker (Northport, N.Y.) made 10 saves for Western New England while sophomore Randy Ryan (Clinton, N.J.) made 15 stops for Wentworth. The Golden Bears had advantages in shots (51-26) and ground balls (44-28).
Wentworth is at Curry on Wednesday.
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