Box Score

DUDLEY, Mass.- The New England College men's lacrosse team earned its first victory of the season, 7-5, over host Nichols on Saturday. The Pilgrims are now 1-4 overall on the year and 1-1 in The Commonwealth Coast Conference while the Bison are still in search of their first win at 0-4 overall and 0-2 in the conference. Senior Cory Love (Rochester, N.Y.) and sophomore Colin Gordon (Manchester, Mass.) led NEC with two goals each in the win.

The Bison got on the scoreboard first when freshman Ryan Pacific (Danbury, Conn.) scored an unassisted goal with 5:25 left in the first. Love tied the game at 1-1 with a man-up goal with 2:04 left in the quarter. Gordon then gave the Pilgrims a 2-1 edge early in the second before freshman Tim Ahern (Boca Raton, Fla.) knotted things back up at two each with 12 minutes left until halftime. Senior Peter Smyth (Bradford, Mass.) scored back-to-back goals to give Nichols a 4-2 lead at the half.

Nichols once again struggled in the second half as NEC scored four straight goals in the third period to take the lead for good, 6-4. The Bison got to within one when freshman Gerard Jacobs (Billerica, Mass.) netted his first collegiate goal late in the third but the Pilgrims went on to score the only goal of the fourth quarter.

Freshman Brian Gattie (Plainfield, Mass.) recorded two assists for Nichols. Also scoring for NEC was sophomore Matt Vozzolo (Somers, Conn.), senior Kyle Burke (Winnetka, Ill.) and senior Carlos Gutierrez (Gauynabo, P.R.). Vozzolo also added two assists for the Pilgrams.

In net, Nichols freshman Justin Berrett (Plymouth, Minn.) posted 11 saves as did NEC's Nick Aquaviva (Syracuse, N.Y.).

Nichols will host Plymouth State tomorrow at 1 p.m.