Cahill, Wood, Scanlan and Leslie each score twice to pace the Ravens to victory

BOXSCORE

RINDGE, N.H. (March 6, 2010) – The Franklin Pierce University men’s lacrosse team opened its 2010 season with a satisfying 12-6 win over Nichols on Saturday at Sodexo Field in Rindge. The Ravens improved to 1-0, while the Bison dipped to 0-1. The win also came in the opener for new head coach Rick Senatore, who took over the reigns of the program following last season.

Freshman attackman Brendan Cahill (Hollis, N.H.), junior attackman Nate Wood (Binghamton, N.Y.), junior midfielder John Scanlan (Great Neck, N.Y.) and sophomore midfielder Matthew Leslie (Ballston Spa, N.Y.) each scored a pair of goals to pace the Ravens in the win. Cahill and Wood added two assists each to register four-point afternoons.

Junior goalkeeper Shea Campbell (Centerport, N.Y.) made 16 saves on 22 shots faced to earn the win to improve to 1-0 on the season.

Franklin Pierce raced out to a 2-0 lead following the first period as Leslie and sophomore midfielder Pat Doliber (Marblehead, Mass.) each put shots past Nichols goalkeeper Scott Gray. Leslie’s goal was assisted on a nice pass from Wood.

The teams swapped goals in the second period as Wood’s tally was sandwiched between a pair of Nichols’ goals.

The Ravens began the third period with a 3-2 advantage, but quickly scored four-straight goals to open up a 7-2 lead a little more than 10 minutes into the stanza. Leslie tallied his second goal of the contest and Scanlan followed with his first moments later. Cahill then got into the scoring column with back-to-back goals at the 4:37 and 4:20 marks.

Nichols got a goal from Steve Delahanty with 3:51 left in the third to pull within 7-3, but Franklin Pierce bridged the third and fourth periods with five-consecutive scores to make it 12-3.

Ryan Palmer (Hinesburg, Vt.) got his first goal of the season with 3:07 left in the third and Wood opened the scoring in the fourth with a goal just 21 seconds in. Scott MacDonald (Marshfield, Mass.) scored two minutes later and Scanlan threw in his second tally two minutes after that.

Sophomore attackman Jimmy McInnis (Amherst, N.H.), who was playing his first game in a Franklin Pierce uniform after transferring from Sacred Heart University this offseason, closed out the scoring for Franklin Pierce at the 8:11 mark with his first goal of the season.

Nichols scored three unanswered goals in the final 7:39, but it wasn’t enough to pull off the comeback.

Franklin Pierce returns to action next Saturday when it plays host to UMass-Boston at 1 p.m. in Sodexo Field. For more information on Franklin Pierce men’s lacrosse, please visit the team’s page at athletics.franklinpierce.edu(.)