NEW LONDON, Conn. – Seniors Jack Rutter (Madison, N.J.) and Sean Smith (Pasadena, Calif.) each found the back of the net five times in leading the Connecticut College men's lacrosse team to an 18-12 victory over Roger Williams in its season opener at Silfen Field on Saturday afternoon.

Freshman Gus Mazzocca (West Hartford, Conn.) netted his first collegiate goal to open the scoring at 11:23 in a contest in which the Camels never trailed. After Tim Mullane tied the score just 13 seconds later following a faceoff win by the Hawks, Rutter set up classmate Winston Palmeri (Denver, Colo.) at 8:58 and then tallied his first marker 41 seconds later to put the hosts ahead for good.

Despite being called for the first four penalties in the game, Connecticut College fought off the adversity by most notably scoring six unanswered between the first and second quarters to begin pulling away. Rutter gave the Camels a 7-3 advantage through 15 minutes of action by scoring with 42.9 seconds left in the first, and Smith followed by netting a natural hat trick in a short span of 1:02 at the beginning of the second stanza. His first two goals were scored just eight seconds apart.

Roger Williams (1-2), however, did not go away easily and slowly made a comeback between the second and third quarters. Mullane began the surge by finishing a feed from Zack O'Brien on a man-up opportunity at the 9:36 mark of the second before eventually setting up Jude Marzec in the third to make it 10-8.

The Hawks' leading scorer netted back-to-back goals to create a 13-11 score with 12:46 left in the fourth, but that was as close as the visitors would come. Mazzocca scored the Camels' second man-up goal of the half with 9:26 remaining to bring the margin back up to four, and the Hawks were unable to recover.

Rutter finished the game with eight points on five goals and three assists to lead the way for Connecticut College, which outshot the Hawks by a 53-38 margin and had a 39-28 advantage on the ground. He also picked up five ground balls. Smith contributed five goals, while freshman Jack Venturelli (Duxbury, Mass.) caused three turnovers. Junior Toby Almeida (Cumberland, R.I.) was 24-for-30 on faceoffs and picked up 17 ground balls, and senior Colin Smith (Mount Kisco, N.Y.) made 10 saves between the posts.

Roger Williams got a five-goal, one-assist effort from Mullane. He also picked up four ground balls and caused a turnover. Marzec finished with two goals, two assists, and three ground balls. Goalie Ryan Bannon turned away 18 shots.

Connecticut College (1-0) will next travel to Middlebury for its NESCAC opener on Saturday, March 7. Game time is slated for 1 p.m.