Springfield, Mass. - February 24, 2016 - The Springfield College men's lacrosse team cruised to a 22-5 win in its season opener on Wednesday afternoon against Gordon College at a rainy Stagg Field.

Springfield, which received votes in the latest United States Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association (USILA) Division III Poll, won its season opener for the seventh-straight year.

Dylan Sheehan (Massapequa, N.Y.) led all scorers with seven points off four goals and three assists, while fellow attackman Tom Hurley (Goffstown, N.H.) chipped in two goals and four assists. Kevin Dean (Westhampton, Mass.) chipped in a goal and three assists as the Pride had 16 players register at least one point.  Tyler Heckmann (Brookfield, Conn.) was dominant at the face-off "X", going 16-for-20 to go along with seven ground balls.  Chris Santaniello (West Springfield, Mass.) played the first three quarters, making three saves to get the win.

The Pride held a 61-21 advantage in shots for the game, a 41-24 cushion in ground balls, and won 20-of-30 draws.

Roger Evans (Oxford, Pa.) opened up the scoring with an unassisted strike just over two minutes into the game, before Hurley answered back at the 11:11 mark as he wrapped around the cage and tucked a shot into the lower corner. Springfield would go ahead for good when Hurley connected with Sheehan with 8:37 left in the first as the Scots burned an early timeout. 

Out of the break, the Pride strung together three unassisted strikes in a 2:53 span, with Tim Cozens (Ridgefield, Conn.) burying a pair of goals and Duncan Preston (South Portland, Maine) tacking on one of his own to push the Pride's lead to 5-1.  Springfield closed out the first quarter scoring on a Tony LaGuerre (Shurb Oak, N.Y.) goal off a feed from Sheehan.

Preston scored Springfield's first marker of the second quarter after picking up a groundball and racing the length of the field before stinging the top corner with 9:17 left in the half.  Springfield didn't let up, getting goals from Sheehan and Matthew LaCroix (Westfield, Mass.) 36 seconds apart with just over eight minutes left, a marker from Dom Abate (Beverly, Mass.) off another Sheehan assist, and Preston's third goal of the contest with 45 ticks left on the clock.  It was a dominant quarter for Springfield, which held the Scots off the scoreboard while owning a 21-2 advantage in shots. 

Springfield carried its momentum into the third, as a pair of Sheehan goals sandwiched a Hurley unassisted strike as Gordon called a timeout with 7:26 left in the quarter trailing 14-1.  Evans scored the visitors first goal in over 35 minutes with his second unassisted goal at the 6:06 mark, before Sheehan found a wide open Dean for the Pride's first man-up goal of the year at 4:23.  Anthony Zabielski (Gansevoort, N.Y.) closed out the third quarter scoring with a goal in transition off a great look by Jake Versprille (Franklin, Mass.).

The Scots scored the first two goals of the fourth by Ryan Utz (Rochester, N.Y.) and Evans, only to have Springfield rattled off six-unanswered goals, including a pair by Lucas Habich (Little Silver, N.J.), to balloon its lead to 22-4.  Nick Manganeillo (Peabody, Mass.) scored the final goal of the game with 1:24 on the clock to complete the 22-5 margin of victory.  

The Pride will travel to Rochester, N.Y. this weekend to take on 16th-ranked Nazareth at 12:00 pm on Saturday.