STANDISH, Maine – The Saint Joseph's College men's lacrosse team secured a 16-10 win over New England College (8-8, 4-4) on Wednesday afternoon in their final contest of the regular season. With the victory, the Monks move to 7-8 overall and 5-4 in conference play.

It was a team effort on offense, with three players recording hat tricks. Will Levesque (Marlow, NH), Tiger Hopkins (Leeds, ME), and Calvin Heline (Amesbury, MA) each scored three goals. Ryan Bogdanski (Southington, CT), Brandon Cavicchi (Kingston, MA), and Noah Schaeffer (Gray, ME) chipped in two apiece, while Joseph Kiedaisch (Westminster, MA) and Zander Kirk (Bath, ME) added one each.

Heline had a standout performance, dishing out six assists to go with his three goals for a game-high nine points. Hopkins also filled up the stat sheet with four assists, and Cavicchi contributed a pair as well.

The game started off evenly, tied 2-2 after the first quarter. But the Monks caught fire in the second, rattling off six unanswered goals to head into halftime with an 8-2 lead. That second-quarter surge featured goals from Levesque, Kirk, Hopkins, and Cavicchi in just over five minutes of game time.

New England College pushed back in the second half, matching Saint Joseph's goal-for-goal with eight, led by Henri Pfeifle's five goals. Daniel Varga and Thomas Norton each scored twice for the Pilgrims.

The Monks controlled the pace, winning 18 of 30 face-offs and grabbing 40 ground balls to NEC's 26. Kirk had a big day at the face-off X, winning 15 of 25 and leading the team with 11 ground balls.

In net, Reed Wescott (Windham, ME) earned the win with 10 saves on 20 shots. Defensively, the Monks forced 27 NEC turnovers, with Michael Jordan notching three caused turnovers to pace the unit.