Springfield, Mass. - March 24, 2018 - The Springfield College men's lacrosse team used a 7-0 scoring run spanning the first and third quarters to pull away from Western New England for an 11-7 victory on Saturday afternoon on Stagg Field.

Springfield has now reeled off four-straight wins to improve to 5-2 on the year, while pushes the Golden Bears record to 3-5.

Five different Springfield players had at least two points, with Duncan Preston (South Portland, Maine) totaling two goals and an assists and Jack Vail (Franklin, Mass.) handing out three helpers. Chris Cunnington (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) caused three turnovers and picked up three ground balls, while Jake Reynolds (Scituate, Mass.) notched eight saves between the pipes.  

Springfield held a 33-31 edge in shots, while the Golden Bears were daunted by 24 turnovers in the setback.  WNE controlled much of the possession early in the game, winning 16-of-22 at the face-off spot, and owning a 22-17 advantage in ground balls.

The visitors opened up with the game's first two goals before Matt Allen (Chevy Chase, Md.) stung an unassisted marker with 2:40 left in the opening quarter.  Allen's goal kickstarted a 7-0 scoring run by Springfield over the next 27-plus minutes as seven different players found the back of the cage to give the hosts a 7-2 edge after a Joe Hawley (Poulsbo, Wash.) strike with 5:07 remaining in the third quarter.  WNE finally broke through the Springfield defense for the first time in nearly 30 minutes with a goal at the 4:12 mark of the third, only to have Tom Hurley (Goffstown, N.H.) bury his second of the game with 28 ticks on the clock to make it a 8-3 ballgame after three quarters of play.

Springfield used goals from Isaac Chase (Longmeadow, Mass.) and Cameron Glover (Brunswick, Maine) in the opening 2:11 of the fourth to push its lead to 10-3.  Another strike from Preston with 8:58 left in regulation concluded the scoring for Springfield, and despite WNE scoring three goals in a 1:41 span late in the game, the Pride held on for the 11-7 victory.

The Pride's next contest will be on Wednesday when its host No. 6 Amherst at 7 pm.