Box Score

DUDLEY, Mass. -- The University of New England got out to a 7-0 halftime lead and then held on down the stretch for a 10-7 victory over Nichols College in The Commonwealth Coast Conference men's lacrosse action Saturday afternoon at Vendetti Field.

The win was the third straight for Big Blue (5-6), and the first in four conference outings (1-3). The Bison fall to 3-5 overall (1-4 TCCC).

UNE sophomore Tyler Thomas (Mount Pleasant, N.Y.) notched the first two scores of the contest to get the Nor'easters started, and classmate Ben Herman (Brunswick, Maine) made it 3-0 after 15 minutes with his first marker of the season.

Big Blue struck four times in the second period -- including two from first-year Dan O'Gorman (Putnam Valley, N.Y.) -- to establish a seven-goal cushion at the break.

Nichols put one of the board 1:41 into the third frame, and senior Ryan Pacific (Danbury, Conn.) scored both his goals a minute apart near the midway point of the quarter to close the deficit to 7-3. Herman registered another score off a feed from Thomas to close out the period and up the UNE total to eight.

The game went the next 13-plus minutes without any scoring, until Nor'easters senior Billy Davis (North Kingstown, R.I.) found the back of the cage at the 5:19 mark of the final stanza. Thomas tallied his third of the match with 2:44 to go to increase the lead to 10-3.

Bison senior Tim Ahern (Boca Raton, Fla.) registered three goals in the ensuing 1:37 to begin to pull the hosts back. Nichols added one more goal with 14 seconds left to provide the final margin.

UNE junior Nate Porter (Cohasset, Mass.) made 11 stops to get the win, while his counterpart, Nichols junior Scott Gray (Annapolis, Md.), posted 17 saves.

Both teams are back on the field Wednesday with home contests against unbeaten conference opponents. The Nor'easters entertain Endicott College at 4 p.m., while the Bison are set to take on Western New England College (6:30 p.m.).