Seahawks double up Bison, 18-9

Freshman James Fee recorded a career-high six points (4g, 2a) in Salve Regina'a 18-9 win over Nichols.
Freshman James Fee recorded a career-high six points (4g, 2a) in Salve Regina'a 18-9 win over Nichols.

MIDDLETOWN, R.I. – Freshman James Fee (Massapequa, N.Y.) posted a career high six points, including his first hat trick as a Seahawk, as the Salve Regina men's lacrosse team doubled up visiting Commonwealth Coast Conference opponent, Nichols, 18-9. With the win, the Seahawks ended a two-year conference win drought and improved to 4-8 on the season and 1-3 in the CCC. Nichols slipped to 3-8 on the year and 0-5 in the conference.

The Seahawks opened the game with a five-goal run in the first quarter before the Bison could find the back of the next. Junior Dan Parks (Nesconset, N.Y.) took a quick feed from Fee to open the scoring 3:04 into the first quarter before junior Chad Hollenshade (Lutherville, Md.) sandwiched a pair of goals around Fee's first two tallies of the game. Senior Macaulay Gillis (Northborough, Mass.) got the Bison on the board with just one second left in the opening quarter with his 14th of the year.

Salve Regina opened the second quarter with two quick goals to take a 7-1 lead but Nichols answered with a pair of its own from Gillis and freshman Chris Litchfield (Burlington, Mass.) to get the Bison within four goals, which proved to be as close as they would come to the Seahawks in the contest. Fee closed out the scoring in the first half with his third tally of the game with just 1:13 left before the horn to give Salve Regina a 8-3 lead.

Freshman Jake Pantani (Branford, Conn.) kept the scoring going with his second and third goals of the game to push the Seahawk lead to 10-3. After freshman Brian Hancock (Groton, Mass.) took advantage of the waning seconds of a man-up opportunity for Nichols to net his ninth of the year, junior Curtis McKeon (West Haven, Conn.) and senior Taylor Braun (Commack, N.Y.) scored back-to-back as the Seahawks led 12-4 with 8:53 to go in the third. The two teams traded goals before Hancock scored two in a row, just the second time in the game the Bison would score back-to-back but Parks put Salve Regina back on top, 14-7 with his third of the game.

This time it was Nichols to score first to open the quarter as Gillis sent home his fourth goal of the game 1:47 into the final quarter to cut the Salve Regina lead to 14-8. Salve Regina responded with four-straight goals from four different Seahawks – McKeon, Fee, senior Francis McNulty (Durham, Conn.) and freshman Alex Flynn (Nashua, N.H.). With just 15 seconds remaining in the contest, Gillis sent home his fifth of the game to bring the score to its final, 18-9 in favor of Salve Regina.

Fee, Hollenshade, Parks and Pantani each netted a hat trick for the Seahawks, while McKeon led all players with 11 ground balls on the day. McKeon needs just 16 more on the season to tie his own single-season record of 127. Gillis led all players with five goals on the day.

Freshman Brian Farina (Jenkintown, Pa.) made 14 stops in the win for Salve Regina while freshman Seth Drouin made 10 saves in the loss of Nichols.

Salve Regina returns to the turf when the Seahawks travel to Gordon on Saturday, April 13 for a CCC contest. The opening faceoff is set for 3 p.m.