Box Score SPRINGFIELD, Mass.--Spring certainly hasn't come early in the Pioneer Valley. But the Western New England University men's lacrosse team sure did celebrate Senior Day earlier than normal, and the Golden Bears honored the senior class with a 19-6 victory over visiting University of New England at Golden Bear Stadium. Saturday also coincided with Western New England's Play 4 a Cause game in honor of WNE Athletics Business Manager Jody Lemoi.

Western New England won its second-straight to improve to 5-4 overall and 2-0 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference, while UNE drops to 4-5 and 0-2 in conference.

Sophomore Justin Bard led the Golden Bears offense with four goals and six points, both game highs, and classmate Max Berteletti pumped in three and five. Senior Jon Bota, who has another year of athletic eligibility, and senior captain Garrett Mullins added three goals and an assist apiece, and classmate Jake Fishter chipped in three assists to top all student-athletes.

Six different Nor'easters found the back of the cage, including Andrew Curro who scored unassisted to put UNE ahead 1-0 at the 10:22 mark of the first quarter. Dan Auger and David Rubenstein contributed two assists each.

Junior Taylor Dubose answered with his seventh goal of the season on a feed from sophomore Keegan Dudeck to tie it 1-1 at the 8:20 mark. Then 56 seconds later, Bota notched his seventh on the year--and first of the game--to put the Golden Bears in the lead for good, 2-1. Bard and Mullins also scored to end the opening quarter as WNE led 4-1 after 15 minutes.

Western New England opened the second stanza by scoring the first five goals over a 6-minute, 32-second span. Bard had two of the goals during that stretch.

Leading 10-2 at the intermission, WNE blew the game open in the third quarter when it outscored the Nor'easters 8-1 to make it 18-3. Freshman Chris Stone potted his first career goal to close the scoring with nine seconds remaining, taking a feed from sophomore James Kolesar who contributed two assists on the day.

Led by Tom Luttrell, J.T. Oliver and Connor Leggett, UNE outscored WNE 3-1 in the fourth quarter. Leggett also tied Andrew Kelly for the team lead with four ground balls. Sophomore Frank Medlicott scored the Golden Bears' lone tally after 2:17 gone, taking a pass from freshman Dominic Marino.

Western New England received terrific performances at the face-off "X" from juniors David Cedrone (9-for-13) and Wade Modestow (7-for-8). Cedrone had a game-best nine ground balls and Modestow scooped up a career-high six.

Senior Brandon Body started the first 33:07 in the WNE goal, making six saves for the victory. Classmate Cam Gormley had three saves in the next 17:10 and junior Jimmy Chase matched Gormley with three stops over the final 9:43. All three keepers allowed two goals. For UNE, John Dusel and David Pearson combined for 14 saves.

Western New England will travel to Wenham to play Gordon College in a CCC match-up, starting at 7 p.m.

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