Buccaneers Lose Season Opener to Wentworth on the Road

BOSTON, Mass – Men's lacrosse took to the road on Wednesday evening to take on Wentworth University in Boston in the team's season opener. Though the Bucs led by one at the half, 5-4, they were our scored 13-5 in the second half dropping their first game of the season 17-10.

Inside The Numbers

For The Bucs

• Senior Captain Ben Avakian (Bourne, Mass) scored a team-high three goals and had an assist.
• Freshman attacker Mitchell Maida (Burlington, Mass) scored twice and had two assists in his first game as a Buccaneer.
• Sophomore Spencer Jones (Barnstable, Mass) scored two goals and had an assist in the loss.
• Senior Franklin Ragge (Scituate, Mass), Senior Michael O'Brien (Marshfield, Mass) and Junior Colby Unterstein (Ellington, Conn) each scored a goal for Maritime to round out the scoring.
• Unterstein led the Bucs in ground balls with 12 and won a game-high 16 faceoffs of 28 he took.
• Goalkeeper Matthew Pierson (Longmeadow, Mass) made 11 saves on 28 shots and allowed the 17 goals in the loss.

For The Leopards

• Ben Coakley led all scorers with seven goals on the night and tied for the game-high in assists with three.
• Erik Madden scored four times and tied Coakley for the game-high in assists with three.
• Andrew DiPalma and Kyler Doner each scored two goals. DiPalma added two assists and Doner tallied one of his own.
• Sam Prunier and Steven Russman each scored one goal. Russman added two assists.
• Tom Rockwell recorded an assist for the team in the win.
• Radu Stancescu won 11 of 23 faceoffs he took for Wentworth.
• Goalkeeper Jack Munroe earned the win in the game between the pipes making 24 saves on 34 shots and allowed the 10 Maritime goals.

How It Happened

Maritime took control of the game in the first quarter on an Avakian goal three minutes in to put the team up 1-0. The teams would go scoreless for the next 10 minutes then, with 2:24 left in the quarter, DiPalma evened the score at 1-1. A minute later, Madden scored for the Leopards to give the hosts a 2-1 lead that they would take to the end of the first.

The Buccaneers took momentum back at the start of the second quarter with four unanswered scores. First, tying the game at two apiece just over three minutes in on Ragge's goal from Maida. Two minutes later the Bucs took their second lead of the game on a Jone's goal. Maida followed up Jones with his first and second career goals, both unassisted, to extend the Buccaneer lead tow three goals, 5-2, with seven minutes to play before the half. With 5:41 left before the Break Coakley scored to make the score 5-3. Less than 10 seconds later he scored again to cut the deficit to one. The 5-4 score would hold until the half, the Bucs barely hanging on.

The Leopards controlled not only the third quarter but the entire second half. After the halftime break, Wentworth came out and scored three unanswered goals. Madden, Russman and DiPalma each scored in the first four minutes of the quarter to take their second lead of the night, 6-5 then 7-5. Capitalizing on a penalty by Wentworth, Avakian scored to cut the lead to one. After the penalty and Maritime score the Leopards went their second three-goal run of the quarter taking a 10-6 lead. Eleven seconds following the third goal of the sequence for the home team, Unterstein scored off the faceoff to get back within three. Doner extended the lead back to four, 11-7, with just over two minutes left in the third. That 11-7 score stood for the remainder of the quarter.

To open the fourth, Wentworth went on their biggest run of the game, four goals, from Madden, Prunier, Coakley and Coakley again in a man-up situation. With 7:45 left in the game and the bucks down 15-7, Maritime scored back-to-back goals from the sticks of O'Brien and Jones to make the score 15-9 with seven to play. Coakley added his sixth and seventh goals of the night over the next four minutes to give his team a 17-9 advantage. Avakian scored his team-leading third goal with nine seconds left on the clock to put the Bucs in double digits goals. The Leopards outscored the Bucs 13-5 in the second half to win the game 17-10.

The Buccaneers' next game is Saturday, March 7^th at 12pm against Curry College at Katz Field in Milton, Mass.