Box Score Game Summary

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Senior attacker Joe O'Keefe (Branford, CT) scored four times and assisted on the winning goal as the Western New England men's lacrosse team defeated visiting New England College 6-4 Tuesday afternoon (Mar. 22) to remain unbeaten in The Commonwealth Coast Conference (TCCC).

This was the third win in the last four outings for the Golden Bears who are now 4-2 overall and 3-0 in the conference. The Pilgrims, who defeated Western New England 11-10 last year in Springfield on a last second shot in the semifinals of TCCC Championship, fall to 2-3 after dropping their conference opener.

New England College took a 1-0 lead when senior midfielder Colin Gordon (Manchester, MA) scored at the 4:11 mark of the opening period. Western New England tied the contest on a goal by O'Keefe with 3:44 left in the second quarter following an assist from sophomore midfielder Joe Johnson (Boston, MA).

The game remained knotted 1-1 at halftime before O'Keefe scored an extra-man goal just 29 seconds into the third period with an assist from junior midfielder Patrick White (Milton, MA).

New England College won the face-off and quickly scored the equalizer when senior midfielder John Gabriel (West Nyack, NY) hit the back of the net with an assist from sophomore defender Mike Holvig (New City, NY) just seven seconds later.

Neither team scored again in the period, which set the stage for a wild fourth quarter.

O'Keefe scored twice in the opening 1:57 of the stanza starting with an unassisted goal at 13:31 and again 28 seconds later with a nifty assist from sophomore midfielder Corey Johnson (Maybrook, NY) who spun away from a defender to deliver a perfect pass that led to the goal.

The Pilgrims again came back tying the game when Holvig tallied an unassisted goal with nine minutes remaining and junior midfielder Jake Flynn (Merrimack, NH) finding the net with an assist from Gabriel just seven seconds later.

White delivered what proved to be the winning goal exactly two minutes later with an assist from O'Keefe. The Golden Bears tacked on an important insurance goal six seconds later when junior midfielder Joe Martin (Springfield, MA) won the face-off and passed the ball to White who had his shot hit the post and bounce back out to Martin who fired in his first goal of the season.

Both goalies were terrific as junior Nick Aquaviva (Syracuse, NY) compiled 17 saves for the Pilgrims with seven coming in the third period. Junior Brewster Knowlton (Somers, CT) turned away 10 shots for the Golden Bears, including five key stops in the final stanza. Aquaviva and Knowlton each came up with several clutch saves in the opening half.

Junior defender Greg Jacques (West Hartford, CT) picked-up nine ground balls for New England College while Martin (who won 6-for-11 face-offs), senior defender Billy Kelsey (Yorktown Heights, NY), and sophomore defender Brian Leistikow (Fort Collins, CO) each had four for Western New England.