Box Score LEWISTON, Maine - #17 ranked Bates handed the Roger Williams University Men's Lacrosse team 23-5 loss in the season opener for both teams on Saturday at Garcelon Field.
 
Senior All-American Charlie Fay scored six times for Bates Fay did not score after the opening quarter but matched his career highs with the six goals and two assists, for a career-high eight points. First-year attackmen Matt Chalastawa (Westfield, Mass.) and Brendan Mullally (Baltimore, Md.) added three goals apiece and senior Andrew Melvin (Medfield, Mass.) posted two goals and four assists in Bates' highest goal tally and largest margin of victory since a 27-0 win over Husson in March 2014.
 
The visiting Hawks (0-1) lost 12-8 to the Bobcats one year ago in both teams' 2016 season opener, en route to an 11-8 final record.
 
A.J. Core scored twice and assisted on another goal for Roger Williams, while Max Cammarota posted two assists. Ryan Lewis, Eddie Hill and Justin MacIntyre also scored for the Hawks.
 
Bates senior Sam Francis (Newburyport, Mass.) won 13 of 17 faceoffs, leading Bates to a 20-9 team advantage in that category. Francis also tied for the team lead in ground balls with four. Sophomore defender Stephen Bull (Baltimore, Md.), making his first start, also collected four ground balls, as did sophomore Rocco Fantoni (Hauppage, N.Y.).
 
Bates sophomore Mitchell Drake (Annapolis, Md.) earned the victory in net for Bates, making four saves in the first half. First-year Rob Strain (Montclair, N.J.) made three saves in 24 minutes of action and junior Jared Baumann (Portland, Ore.) made one save over the final six minutes of the game.
 
Bates peppered the Hawks goal with 62 shots to 25 for RWU. Starting goalie Weston Nolan made 10 saves in the opening half, as Bates outshot RWU 37-11. Connor Carroll manned the pipes for RWU in the second half, making eight saves while Bates outshot the Hawks by a more modest 25-14 margin.
 
Fay scored unassisted with an underhander on the team's first shot attempt of the season, 35 seconds into the game. Bates continued firing away but didn't score again until Fay connected again with 6:19 remaining in the period. Junior Burke Smith (Wilton, Conn.) made it 3-0 a minute later, and 21 seconds later, after a Roger Williams faceoff violation, Fay made it an early hat trick with his third unassisted goal, prompting the Hawks' first timeout.
 
But Fay was far from done, scoring three more goals in a span of 41 seconds, at the 1:52, 1:38 and 1:11 marks of the first quarter. The final one was the first extra-man opportunity of the season for Bates, following a faceoff violation penalty by the Hawks.
 
Fay was penalized for an illegal crosse at the conclusion of the quarter, setting the Hawks up with an extra-man opportunity to start the second quarter. Just 24 seconds into the period, RWU got on the board as Core assisted MacIntyre.
 
The Hawks made it 7-2 with 10:36 left in the half on Hill's goal, but Bates answered with back-to-back goals by Chalastawa and senior Kyle Weber (Chagrin Falls, Ohio) to restore the seven-goal lead.
 
RWU went man-up and Core scored on a Cammarota assist to make it 9-3 with 8:31 left. The Bobcats then finished out the half with seven unanswered goals, with Melvin scoring one and assisting on four other tallies in the streak. The run also featured sophomore Dahnique Brown-Jones' (New Britain, Conn.) first career goal and back-to-back scores by senior Jake Walsh (Baltimore, Md.), giving him a career-high. With seven seconds left in the half, Bates made it 16-3 on the second career goal of junior Regan Haas's (Fairfield, Conn.) career.
 
Bates kept RWU out of the scoring column in the third quarter, increasing the lead to 19-3 as Melvin tallied a man-up goal and sophomore Andrew Small (Deerfield, Ill.) and first-year Matt Kelleher (Newburyport, Mass.) both recorded their first career goals.
 
RWU opened the fourth quarter by cutting into the lead with a man-up goal by Core and a tally by Ryan Lewis, asisted by John Lisitano). Bates finished out the game with four unanswered goals, three of then socred by Mullally in a span of less than three minutes. Senior Jack Adons (Doylestown, Pa.) fed first-year Ian Bell (Pittsburgh, Pa.) on the final tally, Adons' first career assist.
 
Both teams play again on Wednesday, with Roger Williams hosting Lasell at 4pm and Bates traveling to Babson for a 5pm start.
 
- Release courtesy of the Bates College Sports Information Department