SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The Western New England University men's lacrosse team used a strong second half to beat Roger Williams University 13-6 in Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) play on Wednesday night at Golden Bear Stadium.
 
Western New England was led by a four-point performance (2 G, 2 A) from senior attackman Jared Ward (Littleton, Mass.) Both freshman attackman Mike Bannon (Edmond, Okla.) (3 G) and junior midfielder Nick Gamba (East Islip, N.Y.) (2 G, 1 A) poured in three points, while junior attackman Brendan Lyons (Syosset, N.Y.) added two goals. Sophomore midfielder Matt Greer (South Windsor, Conn.) facilitated the Golden Bear offense with four assists.
 
Sophomore midfielder Conor Tracy (Walpole, Mass.), sophomore attackman Jared Newall (Stratford, Conn.), and junior midfielder John Shahpazian (New Providence, N.J.) all registered one goal in the victory.
 
Roger Williams received three goals from senior midfielder Chris Bova (Ridgefield, Conn.), while sophomore midfielder Gabe Reale finished with two points (1 G, 1 A). Three other student-athletes finished with one point for the Hawks.
 
One minute in, the Golden Bears opened up the game strong with a Greer swing to Ward, who fired out the first goal of the game. At 6:38, Roger Williams regained the lead with back-to-back goals from Bova, as he bounced off a defender to make it 2-1.
 
Seconds later, junior midfielder Oskar Djusberg (Abington, Mass.) scored after a crafty move to escape the Hawks' defense, tying the game at 2-2. At 3:34, the Hawks would go up one after a Jared Grier goal assisted by Andrew Gaffney. With 2:54 remaining, Greer found Gamba off a screen to even the score at three apiece.
 
In the second quarter, the Hawks would score on two unassisted shots from Reale and Bova to push the lead to 5-3. With 5:26 left on the clock, Djusberg would force a turnover and find Ward on the wing to cut the lead to 5-4. Each team would look for offense before the half, but come up short.
 
The Golden Bears came out aggressive in the third quarter. At 14:02, Bannon tied the game off a Greer dish. Then, Gamba split the defense with a low skip shot to retake the lead at 6-5.
 
Roger Williams would find the answer off a Mullane-Reale connection to tie the game once again. At 1:51, Western New England regained the lead at 7-6 as Bannon made a move around the crease and slipped one past the Hawks defense. From there, the Golden Bears would not let up the lead. Western New England dominated the remainder of the game, scoring seven unanswered goals ballooning their lead to 13-6 and taking home the victory.
 
Western New England (4-3, 2-0 CCC) looks to remain undefeated in CCC play as the Golden Bears host University of New England (5-4, 0-0 CCC) on Saturday at 4pm. Roger Williams (6-4, 0-1 CCC) will host Curry College (4-5, 1-1 CCC) on Saturday.
 
- Release courtesy of the Western New England Sports Information Department