Box Score SPRINGFIELD, Mass.--In a battle of crosstown and former conference rivals, Western New England University outscored Springfield College 5-1 in the fourth quarter to capture a 13-8 victory on Thursday at Golden Bear Stadium. The host Golden Bears, who are ranked eighth in this week's New England Intercollegiate Lacrosse Association poll and receiving votes in the NCAA Division III coaches' poll, improve to 7-4 on the season after winning their fourth game in a row. The Pride fall to 3-6 overall.

Senior captain Garrett Mullins and sophomore Justin Bard paced the Western New England offense with three goals and an assist apiece. Senior Jon Bota and junior Patrick Dillon (1 assist) each added two goals.

The Pride were led by Dylan Sheehan who had three points on two goals and an assist, while Bryce Serriello also contributed two goals.

Western New England senior goalie Brandon Body made 11 saves to earn the victory and move to 7-4 this season.

After Sheehan and Serriello tallied unassisted goals to pull the Pride within 8-7 in the third quarter, the Golden Bears responded by reeling off the first five goals--including three in a 2-minute, 20-second span--of the fourth. Bard sparked the 5-0 run with goals at 13:09 and 6:21, and Mullins, junior Taylor Dubose and Bota added insurance goals.

SC took a 1-0 lead 63 seconds after the opening face-off as Sheehan found Kevin Dean open in front of the cage for a quick-stick goal.

Sophomore Keegan Dudeck put the Golden Bears on the scoreboard at the 12:09 mark as starting goalie Kevin Ostrom (5 goals against, 3 saves) got a piece of his bounce shot before the ball trickled over the goal line.

Joey Raniolo scored his first goal of the season to give the Pride their last lead of the afternoon, 2-1, with 8:22 left in the first quarter. Western New England used a 5-0 run for the rest of the stanza and opening 2:06 of the second to spurt ahead 6-2. Dillon tied it 2-all on a feed from Dubose at 6:12 and Mullins notched his second of three goals at 5:15 to give the Golden Bears the lead they would not relinquish again. Western New England led 8-5 at the intermission.

Brendan Dooley scooped up a game-best seven ground balls as the Pride won that battle, 36-30. Junior David Novitzky and Bota led WNE with five apiece. Junior David Cedrone had four ground balls and won 10 of 15 at the face-off "X."

Western New England held a slight advantage in shots (39-35) and shots on goal (28-19).

Chris Santaniello allowed eight and made 12 saves over the last 45 minutes to help the Pride stay close until the middle of the fourth quarter.

Western New England was able to avenge a 2014 NCAA Tournament loss to Springfield College in the teams' last meeting.

At halftime of today's contest, the Golden Bears recognized 20-25 members of the Springfield Boys & Girls Club's inner-city lacrosse program. The young participants donned new program T-shirts, had a meal and got to watch a terrific NCAA men's lacrosse game before almost 1,000 fans. For the past two years, the Western Mass. chapter of US Lacrosse, as well as Western New England University and Springfield College coaches and players, have worked to introduce the game of lacrosse to the city youngsters. The Boys & Girls Club will be applying for a US Lacrosse First Stick Diversity Grant this summer in the hope of obtaining 25 full sets of lacrosse equipment to get a team out on the field in 2016. If you would like to support this venture, please contact Conor Bevan at the Springfield Boys & Girls Club or Matt Perry and Dave Wheaton at Western Mass. US Lacrosse.

The Golden Bears' next game will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday against Salve Regina in Commonwealth Coast Conference action at Golden Bear Stadium.

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