BUZZARDS BAY, Mass – The Buccaneers welcomed Norwich University in to Clean Harbors Stadium on Wednesday evening for their annual non-conference clash. For the second year in a row, the Cadets up ended the Bucs by a score of 11-6.

The Basics

Cadets 11, Buccaneers 6

Mass Maritime 1-2 (0-0 MASCAC)

Norwich 3-2 (1-0 CCC)

Inside The Numbers

For The Bucs

• Senior captain Benjamin Avakian (Bourne, Mass) scored three goals to lead Maritime offensively.
• Freshman Mitchell Maida (Burlington, Mass) scored twice in the loss. He picked up a team-high eight ground balls and caused two turnovers.
• Sophomore Alexandre Lucas (Walpole, Mass) rounded out the scoring for the hosts and added an assist.
• Senior Michael O'Brien (Marshfield, Mass) and sophomore Peter Raei (Boston, Mass) each tallied and assist.
• Sophomore midfielder and faceoff man Colby Unterstein (Ellington, Conn) won 11 of the 19 face offs he took and picked up six ground balls.
• Senior goalkeeper Matthew Pierson (Longmeadow, Mass) saved 11 shots and allowed 11 goals on 2 shots faced.

For The Cadets

• Junior Payden Masaracchia (Enola, Penn) led all scorers with six goals in the game.
• Sophomore Parker Campbell (Rockaway, N.J.) scored twice in the win.
• Seniors Russell Gilligan (Fountain Hills, Az), Kyle Maxim (Dracut, Mass) and John Jennings (Riva, Md) each scored once. Maxim and Jennings also added an assist.
• Senior Jack Anzalone (Ridgewood, N.J.) assisted on two goals in the game with junior Clyde Tamburro (Elizabethtown, Penn) also recording an assist.
• Junior face off man Chris Ward (Westfield, Mass) picked up a game-high nine ground balls and won nine of 17 face offs.

How It Happened

The first 10 minutes of the game were fairly slow moving as the clock ticked away with neither team finding the back of the net. Then, with five minutes left in the first, Norwich got on the board on Campbell's first of the day. Masaracchia followed that up with his first of the day a minute later. Up 2-0, Norwich added to their lead again with one minute remaining in the quarter to take a 3-0 advantage to the second.

Maritime erased the shutout just over two minutes in to the second quarter on a Maida goal. The teams proceeded to go back and forth before half time with six total goals, three by each team, in the second. After Maida scored for the Bucs, Jennings scored for Norwich. That was followed by an Avakian goal for the hosts less than a minute later. It took five minutes but Norwich answered with Masaracchia's second of the day to run the score to 5-2 in favor of the Cadets. Avakian and Masaracchia each scored again for their respective teams inside of three minutes. With the Bucs unable to answer the Cadet momentum, they trailed by three after the second quarter with the score 6-3 Cadets at the halftime break.

Coming out of the break, Norwich scored three minutes in to the quarter and again just after the 10-minute mark of the period. Their three-goal unanswered streak dating back to the end of the second quarter gave the guests an 8-3 lead. The Bucs grabbed one back shortly after the three goal run by Norwich, from Maida, to make the score 8-4. It would be the only goal of the third quarter for the Buccaneers. Norwich, however, went on to score two more times before the end of the third. Masaracchia scored both to give his team a 10-4 advantage heading to the fourth quarter.

The fourth quarter was the only one in which the Buccaneers outscored the Cadets, 2-1, and both goals came in the first three and a half minutes. Avakian scored unassisted, followed by a Lucas goal from O'Brien with 11:30 left in regulation. At 10-6, Norwich's defense stood on its head not allowing the Bucs to find the back of the net again and to a similar end, the Bucs held Norwich scoreless for nearly the rest of the game. With seven seconds left in the game, Masaracchia scored his sixth goal of the game making the score 11-6, which would be the final score of the game.