Endicott rallies behind Tordik's five points for second CCC victory

Box Score

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BEVERLY, Mass. – In a match up with CCC foe and North Shore rival Gordon on Wednesday night, the Endicott men’s lacrosse team raced out to an 11-2 halftime advantage en route to a 14-4 victory over the Scots at Endicott Stadium.
 
The victory lifted Endicott’s record to .500 for the first time this season as the Gulls currently stand at 3-3 overall with a 2-0 mark in CCC action.  Gordon, playing in their first conference game of the season, dropped to 1-4 (0-1 CCC).
 
Freshman attacker Joshua Tordik (Sayville, N.Y.) accumulated five points on the day for Endicott behind four goals and one assist, but it was a five-to-one over the opening quarter that saw the Gulls take control of the game.  Three of those marks were by junior midfielder Peter Erickson (Yarmouth, Maine) who earned his first points since getting back-to-back goals in the first two games of the season. 
 
Endicott junior goalie Tom Burke (Sudbury, Mass.) was a force between the pipes, stopping eight of Gordon’s shots of goals during his 45 minutes on the field and allowing just two goals.  Sophomore Conley Cummings (Simsbury, Conn.) came on in relief to allow just one goal while making five saves on 13 shots faced. 
 
The Gulls had 10 different players record caused turnovers against the Scots with Michael Armstrong (Winchester, Mass.) and Breck Merritt (Weston, Mass.) leading the way with three and two causes, respectively.  Scots sophomore defender Ian Knechtle (New Canaan, Conn.) was a factor defensively for Gordon with a game-high five caused turnovers with 10 groundballs. 
 
After an unassisted tally by senior midfielder Brendan Eppley (Darien, Conn.) just seventy-five seconds into the game, Erickson first struck at 9:21 to put the Gulls ahead 2-0.  Armstrong got his first goal of the season and just the third of his career under a minute and a half later before Erickson scored again on a man-up situation with an assist to Connor Prescott (Norwalk, Conn.).
 
Gordon would get on the board with 3:43 remaining in the first quarter on Matt Dantona’s (Syosset, N.Y.) second goal of the season off an assist from Wes Chittick (Glenside, Pa.). 
 
Dantona’s goal would be answered by seven straight tallies by Endicott, including a hat trick by Tordik to make it 11-1 with just 2:48 remaining in the half.  Erickson completed his three-goal effort during this stretch while sophomore Jake Heger (Longmeadow, Mass.), freshman Kyle Weber (West Hartford, Conn.) and Prescott also found the back of the net.  Assists on the stretch went to Eppley (to Tordik), Jon Thanas (Cumberland, R.I., to Heger) and Harrison Cotter (Lordship, Conn., to Tordik).
 
The Scots halted Endicott’s string of goals at the 1:58 mark of the second quarter as senior midfielder Dan Perednia (Granby, Conn.) converted a pass from fellow senior Adam Quinn (Gloucester, Mass.) to make it 11-2 at the half.
 
Over the final two quarters just five goals were scored, one by Quinn and another by Chittick for Gordon while Tordik scored his fourth and junior Nick Togneri (Longmeadow, Mass.) and freshman Jeremy Morgan (Ridge, N.Y.) scored their first goals of the season. 
 
Endicott face-off man Sam Ozycz (Cheshire, Conn.) helped control possession in the Gulls favor by winning 15-of-21 attempts and scooping 10 groundballs.  Tordik and Burke were also effective with six and five groundballs, respectively. 
 
Scots midfielder Sam Spellman (Lewes, Del.) and goalie Houston Zemanski (Annapolis, Md.) tied for second-best on the team with five groundballs behind Knechtle’s 10 groundball-performance.  Zemanski took the loss in net but made 10 saves on the day.
 
Endicott returns to their challenging non-conference schedule with a road test against \#12 Springfield on Saturday, March 24^th starting at 3:00 pm.  The Gulls and Pride last met in the First Round of the NCAA Division III Tournament last season as Endicott beat Springfield for the second time in one season with a 6-5 win at home to advance in the bracket. 
 
Gordon hosts Nichols in CCC action on Saturday at 4:00 pm as the Scots look for their first conference win in the early going.