Western New England Dominates Early, Holds on Late for 14-10 Victory over UNE

Ward powers WNE with four goals & three assists

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (March 30, 2019) – The Western New England University men's lacrosse team opened up a 10-1 first-half lead and cruised to a 14-10 Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) victory over the University of New England on Saturday afternoon at Golden Bear Stadium.

Top Performers
Western New England senior attackman Jared Ward (Littleton, Mass.) fueled the Golden Bear offense with a game-high seven points, scoring four goals to go with three assists.

Junior midfielders Nick Gamba (East Islip, N.Y.) and John Shahpazian (New Providence, N.J.) recorded four points each, while freshman attackman Mike Bannon (Edmond, Okla.) dished out three assists.

Senior Hunter Cocks (Walden, N.Y.) and sophomore Jack Seiter (Ridgewood, N.J.) split the faceoff duties, as Cocks won 10-of-12 and Seiter went 9-for-15.

UNE senior attackman Alex Zadworny (Florence, Mass.) finished with two goals and two assists, while senior Mitch Mullin (Cumberland, Maine) and junior Garett Bozek (Nashua, N.H.) scored three goals each.

Game Review
Western New England dominated early, scoring seven unanswered first quarter goals to set the tone for the game.

Gamba got it started with a pair of unassisted tallies, with the first coming just 24 seconds into the contest. Shahpazian then scored a man-up goal on a feed from Ward at the 9:31 mark, before sophomore Conor Tracy (Walpole, Mass.) found the back of the net to make it 4-0. Three more goals later in the period, including two from Ward, extended the lead to 7-0 through 15 minutes of play.

A Shahpazian goal early in the second quarter gave the Golden Bears an 8-0 lead, before the Nor'easters finally got on the board courtesy of Bozek at the 13:12 mark.

Western New England would outscore UNE 4-1 over the remainder of the quarter, however, to open up a commanding 12-2 lead at halftime.

A low scoring second quarter saw Bannon set up Ward at 11:43 to give the Golden Bears their largest lead of the game (13-2), before Mullin notched a pair of goals later in the quarter (6:47, 0:33) to get the visitors back to within nine (13-4).

UNE played its best over the final 15 minutes of regulation, as the Nor'easters outscored the Golden Bears 6-1 in the fourth quarter.

Western New England's 11-goal lead from earlier in the contest proved to be too much for the visitors to overcome, however, as UNE was unable to complete the comeback.

Notes
• Western New England outshot UNE 48-35, including 16-4 in the first quarter.
• The Golden Bears dominated the ground ball battle, 39-17.

Up Next
Both teams will be back in action on Tuesday night, as Western New England (6-3, 3-0 CCC) hosts crosstown rival Springfield College, and UNE (5-5, 0-1 CCC) returns home to take on Wentworth.