Box Score DUDLEY, Mass. (April 12) – The New England College men's lacrosse team held onto a seven-goal halftime lead to defeat Nichols, 15-3, in a The Commonwealth Coast Conference game at Vendetti Field Tuesday afternoon. Led by a seven-point effort from John Gabriel, the Pilgrims improve to 10-4 overall and 5-2 in TCCC games. Nichols received two goals from Brian Gattie (Plainfield, N.H.), but falls to 3-8 overall and 1-7 in TCCC action.

Bradley O'Brien (Danbury, Conn.) scored the third Bison goal, and Macaulay Gillis (Northborough, Mass.) picked up an assist.

Gabriel scored four goals and added three assists for the Pilgrims while Matt Carey chipped in with four goals. Colin Gordon and Steve Parsons each scored twice and Chris Harris connected with Gabriel for two assists.

Gordon put New England College on the board at 8:13 of the first quarter, starting a four-goal spree that spanned just 1:07 and was highlighted by a Jake Flynn score right off the faceoff. Flynn won nine of 15 draws on the day.

Gabriel gave the Pilgrims a 5-0 lead at the end of the first quarter before Carey struck twice in the second frame and goalkeeper Nick Aquaviva finished the half with seven stops to give NEC a 7-0 advantage at the break.

The Pilgrims opened the third quarter with three-straight goals including two from Parsons to open up a 10-0 lead before Gattie broke their stride with an unassisted score at 8:14. Carey and Gabriel closed out the quarter with goals 29 seconds apart to make it 12-1 headed into the final stanza.

Gordon followed a Carey strike with the game's only man-up goal at 12:11 of the fourth quarter before Nichols closed out the game's scorig with goals from O'Brien and Gattie.

Scott Gray (Annapolis, Md.) made 11 saves for the Bison in 55 minutes before bowing out to Shahar Shatzberger (Peabody, Mass.). Aquaviva finished with 11 saves in 52 minutes before giving way to Eric Legott who made one save and allowed two goals.

Tim Dooley (Tewksbury, Mass.) won 10 of 19 faceoffs for the Bison, leading the team with six groundballs. Flynn and Greg Jacques each had six groundballs for the Pilgrims, who led the overall battle, 40-28, and outshot their hosts, 39-21 on the day.

Nichols is back in action on Saturday in a 2:30 p.m. TCCC game at Salve Regina. New England College hosts Roger Williams Saturday for a 4 p.m. TCCC game.

Box Score