BRISTOL, R.I. – The Roger Williams University Men's Lacrosse team held off the Lyon's of Wheaton in a 9-8 thriller.  The Hawks improve to 2-0 on the season while Wheaton drops to 0-3.

The Hawks offense found their rhythm quickly posting three goals in the first five minutes of play.  At 14:08 Jon Nessa (Concord, Mass.) hit an open Drew Beck (South Salem, N.Y.) for the first score.   John Ricciardi (Duxbury, Mass.) followed up with an unassisted score at 12:19 to put the Hawks up by two.  At 10:56 Caleb Kenney (Portland, Maine) found Nick Gagnon (Milton, Mass) to complete the three goal run.

Wheaton evened the score by half time with a strong second period outscoring the Hawks 4-1.  Alex Keiver (North Andover, Mass.) drew first blood for the Lyons on pass from Liam Williams (East Lyme, Conn.) at 13:26.  Will Compton (Deering, N.H.) found the net at 9:51 on an unassisted attempt to bring the Lyons within a goal of the Hawks.  Kirby Sundquist (Concord, Mass) tallied his first of the day for the Hawks on an assist from Ricciardi at 7:24.  Wheaton's Sean Doherty answered back with a goal assisted by Compton and a solo effort that concluded the first half scoring.

The Hawks open third quarter in similar fashion to the first posting three goals before Wheaton responded with three of their own.  At 11:38 Gagnon passed to Kenney who marked the first score for the Hawks.  Tim Kelly (Ridgefield, Conn.) took a pass from Beck at 6:11 to add the second score of the half.  Beck completed the run at 5:55 on a pass from Nessa to put the Hawks up by three.  Keiver stopped the Hawks scoring run taking an assist from Cam Hanlon (Hanson, Mass.) with 5:00 to play in the third.  The momentum swung quickly towards the Lyons when Doherty found Matthew Hillman twice for two men up goals then sent the contest to 7-7 going into the fourth quarter.

Nessa gave the lead back to the Hawks on a long-shot off the wing from a Sundquist pass at 11:56.  At 9:07 Nessa came through again, scoring on assist from Beck that gave the Hawks a two goal cushion.  Sean Finn (Kennebunk, Maine) found Keiver for his third goal of the day to close within one score at 5:04 but the Hawks successfully managed the remaining one goal lead to close out the Lyons.

The Hawks will be back in action March 15, 2013 at Pittsford, NY for a 1:00 p.m. game with Nazareth.