WATERVILLE, Maine. – A flurry of goals in the final 10 minutes of the first half helped lift the Connecticut College men's lacrosse team to a 13-8 victory over Colby College on Saturday afternoon at Seaverns Field.
The Camels have won their last three games—including two in NESCAC play—and improved to 4-3 on the year. Conn also picked up its first road win over a NESCAC opponent since the 2019 season.
Jared Rainville (Watertown, Conn.),
JJ Ford (Clinton, Conn.) and
Liam Horkan (Malden, Mass.) each netted hat tricks to lead Conn's offense. Rainville also added a pair of assists to pace all scorers with five points. On the defensive end,
Will Rice (New Rochelle, N.Y.) turned in a monster effort in the cage with a season-high 16 saves.
The Mules looked strong early, building a 5-1 advantage over the first 20 minutes of the contest. Their first two scores came on extra-man opportunities, and Evan DeVita notched three goals during the stretch.
Rainville provided the spark to get the Camels going, notching his first goal off an EMO with 9:20 left in the half. He then assisted on a score by
Sean Fox (Dunwoody, Ga.) and later tied the game at 5-5 with another tally with 3:20 remaining. Horkan and Ford tacked on goals before the halftime whistle to stake Conn to a 7-5 advantage at intermission.
Having scored the final six goals of the first half, the Camels continued to pile it on to start the second. Ford completed his hat trick off a feed from
Patrick Atkins (Topsfield, Mass.) to get things started, and Horkan followed suit with back-to-back tallies on unassisted efforts. Rainville added his third score late in the quarter to extend Conn's lead to 11-5, capping a span of 10 unanswered goals by the visitors.
Rice was a brick wall during Conn's scoring spree, stopping all seven of Colby's shots on goal during the stretch. He didn't allow a goal for nearly 25 minutes of game time before finally relenting with 49 seconds remaining in the third quarter.
Atkins and
Jack Gurney (Grafton, Mass.) each tacked on goals in the fourth, but by that point the game was already decided. Conn finished with a 44-38 advantage in shots and won 13 of 25 face offs. In just his third game back this season,
Aidan Gaudet (Cheshire, Conn.) went 8-for-14 at the center spot while
Jason Fastiggi (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) also picked up five wins.
Conn College will next play at Trinity College on Wednesday, April 5 at 7:00 p.m.
