Sixth-ranked Endicott coasts past NEC in conference opener
March 21, 2009
BEVERLY, Mass. - Endicott College coasted to its sixth-straight win by dominating New England College, 10-2, in each team's The Commonwealth Coast Conference opener on Saturday afternoon in Beverly, Massachusetts. Endicott held a dominating 47-12 advantage in shots and a controlled the groundball game at a 48-19 clip. Four Endicott face-off men also combined to go 14-of-15 at the midfield X, surrendering just one draw all afternoon. The victory improves the Gulls to 6-0 (1-0 TCCC) while the Pilgrims dip to 1-2 (0-1 TCCC).
Endicott opened the afternoon by scoring four unanswered goals, three coming in the first quarter, to quickly give the hosts a comfortable early lead. Eddie O'Reilly (Beverly, Mass.) notched the first of his game-high four goals just 3:44 into the opening frame as he took a feed from Jack Curtis (Chelmsford, Mass.) and used a high-low stick fake on NEC goalkeeper Nick Acquaviva (Syracuse, N.Y.) for the 1-0 lead. Nick Cosco (Londonderry, N.H.) and Brandon Dube (Danvers, Mass.) also got in on the scoring action in the first, putting EC up 3-0 after one.
Dube struck again just 5:17 into the second quarter as the Gulls broke in transition, with Curtis finding Dube back post for an easy layup goal. NEC finally got on the board as Matt Carey (Medford, N.Y.) uncorked a shot from the left side that found the upper-right corner, beating Eric Hagarty (Sudbury, Mass.) to make it a 4-1 game. Eddie O'Reilly would regain the four goal advantage for the Blue and Green just 37 seconds later as he found the back of the net from 10 yards out to give Endicott a 5-1 lead at the intermission.
The second half was much of the same as O'Reilly added to the Endicott lead with a bomb from 20 yards out on the man advantage with 3:34 left in the third. Nick Cosco then made it 7-1 Gulls with a turnaround bounce shot on the goalmouth off a pass from Chris Cotter (Fairfield, Conn.).
NEC capitalized on the man-up to begin the fourth as John Gabriel (West Nyack, N.Y.) scored on an assist from Matt Vozzolo (Somers, Conn.). Endicott closed out the game on a three-goal run, with O'Reilly, Dan Cain (Billerica, Mass.) and Justin Sproul (Londonderry, N.H.) securing a 10-2 Endicott win.
Pilgrims' goaltender Nick Acquaviva kept NEC close for much of the game, as the sophomore made 18 saves in the losing effort. Eric Hagarty was only called upon to make five saves, including four in the fourth, to improve his record to 6-0.
Eddie O'Reilly ended the game with four goals, while Nick Cosco had two goals and two assists. Brandon Dube finished the afternoon with a pair of tallies and fellow attackman Jack Curtis dished out to helpers for the Gulls.
Endicott looks to keep its perfect record alive as the Gulls travel to cross-town rival Gordon College on Tuesday evening for a 7:00 p.m. face-off with the Fighting Scots. NEC will host its home-opener on Tuesday when the Pilgrims square-off with Roger Williams at 4:00 p.m.