No. 6 Amherst Uses Strong First Quarter to Down Conn. College, 15-9

Photo is courtesy of Amherst College

NEW LONDON, Conn. – The No. 6 Amherst College men's lacrosse team used a nine-assist effort from Quinn Moroney '16 and a six-goal outing from Kane Haffey '16 to help the Purple & White secure a 15-9 victory over NESCAC rival Conn. College Tuesday afternoon at the Artificial Turf Field at Silfen Stadium in New London, Conn.

With the win, Amherst improves to 10-2 overall, 6-1 in league play, while Conn. College moves to 6-6 on the season, 2-5 in NESCAC action.

FIRST HALF HIGHLIGHTS

• Conn. College got off to a fast start as Pierce DellaFera scored a man-up goal at the 12:40 mark assisted by Derek Bertolini to give the Camels a 1-0 lead.
• Less than one minute later Moroney found Haffey on the extra-man opportunity to start a 6-0 run for the Purple & White.
• Haffey scored three more goals in the period, all assisted by Moroney, while Michael Litner '16 and Chris Albanese '17 each capitalized on feeds from Moroney.
• Jordan Foster scored a man-down goal on a dish from Bertolini at the 11:15 mark of the second quarter to make it 6-2, but a string of four straight goals by Amherst helped the visitors stake a 10-2 advantage.
• Haffey scored on a dish from Evan Wolf '19, before he scored a marker of his own assisted by Moroney.
• Charlie Gill '16 added a man-up score (from Moroney) before Haffey scorched the net on a pass from Wolf to give the Purple & White an eight-point cushion with 6:08 to play in the second quarter.
• A PJ Kelleher goal with 3:21 to play, followed by an unassisted goal by Wolf kept the margin at eight, before DellaFera found the back of the net with 16 seconds left to set the halftime score at 11-4.

SECOND HALF HIGHLIGHTS

• In a tightly contested third frame, Penn Sednaoui scored at the 8:17 mark to make it 11-5, before Evan Wolf found Brian O'Malley '17 at the 4:53 mark.
• Wolf then struck 28 seconds later with help from Moroney to make it 13-5 after 45 minutes of play.
• The fourth quarter saw Conn. College string together four straight goals as DellaFera score twice, both from Tucker Mscisz, while Foster added two unassisted scores as the Camels rallied to within four 6:42 to play in the contest.
• Connor Sheehan '18 and Wolf closed the door on a comeback attempt as Wolf's goal at the 2:09 mark was aided by Matt Killian '17 to set the final score at 15-9.

BY THE NUMBERS

• O'Malley and Andrew Ford '19 led Amherst with three ground balls each, while O'Malley also forced a trio of opponent turnovers.
• Cody Tranbarger '17 made 11 saves in 53:18 between the pipes and earned the win to improve to 10-2, while Thomas Gilligan '16 made two stops in the final 6:42. David White '18 was 3-for-4 on face offs.
• Bobby Bleistein registered 15 saves in the losing effort, while Ben Parens led all players with 10 ground balls and was 21-for-27 in face offs.

UP NEXT

• Amherst travels to Medford, Mass. to take on No. 3 Tufts University in a NESCAC showdown at Bello Field. Game time is 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 16.  
• Conn. College is back in action Saturday, April 16 when it hosts Hamilton College at 1 p.m.