STANDISH, Maine - New England College (2-1) defeated Saint Joseph's College (2-2), 17-11, in a non-conference game at the SJC Athletics Complex on Wednesday evening.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

The Pilgrims put the Monks on their heels right out of the gate with four unanswered goals in the opening six minutes of play. Senior Brendan Martin (Nashua, N.H.) and sophomore Xavier Michaud (Wales, Maine) later scored 82 seconds apart to cut the Monks' deficit in half, but New England College responded with five-consecutive tallies and held a 9-3 advantage heading into intermission.

The teams proceeded to essentially swap scores for the better part of the second half as a Charles Hacking (Canterbury, N.H.) marker made it a 17-8 game in favor of the visitors with 7:25 remaining. St. Joe's managed to string together three unanswered goals in just over two minutes, but the effort proved to be too little, too late for the Royal Blue.

TEAM STATS:

New England College held the lead in shots (44-42), shots on goal (32-22), ground balls (32-25), and face-off victories (20-10) on the evening.

THE KEEPERS:

SJC sophomore starter Brannon Gilbert (Gray, Maine) took the loss after making three saves in 23:14 minutes and junior Michael Janocha (Southampton, Mass.) turned away 15 shots in 36:46 minutes of relief duty. NEC freshman netminder Michael Catalano (Norwood, Mass.) posted 11 stops in the victory.

LEADERS – SAINT JOSEPH'S:

• Martin netted five goals with two ground balls
• Senior Shane Puleo (Nashua, N.H.) tallied three goals and a pair of assists
• Michaud added a goal and two assists
• Glenn Dion (Pembroke, N.H.) and Max Lacy (Salisbury, N.H.) netted a goal apiece
• Senior Alex Osmanski (Abington, Mass.) notched four ground balls and four caused turnovers

LEADERS – NEW ENGLAND COLLEGE:

• Senior Connor Smith (Oakland, Maine) paced the NEC offense with eight goals and recorded 20 shots – including 12 on goal – on the evening
• Senior Patrick Storie (Lanesborough, Mass.) scored three goals with five assists
• Junior Josh Owen (Concord, N.H.) added three goals, two assists, two ground balls, and a pair of caused turnovers
• Hacking contributed two goals and an assist
• Junior Quint Bartush (Norwalk, Conn.) won 19-of-28 face-off attempts and picked up a game-high nine ground balls

HISTORICALLY SPEAKING:

With the loss, Saint Joseph's falls to 1-1 all-time versus New England College. The Monks defeated the Pilgrims by a 13-8 margin in the first meeting between the regional counterparts – a game played in Henniker, N.H. on March 20th, 2019.

NEXT!

The Monks return to action on Saturday with a 1:00 PM contest at GNAC-rival Norwich University.

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