'KEENE, N.H. 5/1/03 – Ben Bradley (South Hadley, Mass.) had four goals to lead the Keene State College men's lacrosse team to a 20-5 victory over UMass-Dartmouth in a Little East Conference Tournament semifinal game played Thursday at Owl Stadium Complex.

Seeded second Keene State (11-3) advances to Saturday's championship game against top seed Eastern Conn. State University at Willimantic, Conn. (1 p.m.)  ECSU moved on to the title game by defeating fourth seed UMass-Boston 19-4 in Tuesday's other semifinal contest. The Warriors have won the past two LEC Championships.

"After we got our jitters out, we just started to connect and we're pretty hard to beat on our turf," said KSC Coach Mark Theriault. 

Theriault said that last year's upset loss to UMD (14-7) in the semifinals was a major motivator for his team. "That was on our scouting report," he said. "It just shows we're a better team this year and that was indicated by the decisive score."

After a slow start, KSC opened up a 6-1 lead after the first quarter and led 12-3 at the half.

Eric Momnie (South Windsor, Conn.) had three goals and Meade McKay (Stratham, N.H.), Joe Calcagno (Mt. Lakes, N.J.), Mike Lesage (Exeter, N.H.), Greg Richard (Nashua, N.H.), and Joe Branciforte (Cromwell, Conn.) finished with two goals each for the Owls. Mckay also added three assists.

Brian Pabis (Wilbraham, Mass.) led the Corsairs (8-5) with three goals.

Eric Delisle (Amherst, N.H.) made 12 saves and Ryan Connary (Buxton, Me.) made four saves in the final quarter for the Owls.  Mike Jenkins (Ashland, Mass.) had 13 saves and Mike Foley (Milton, Mass.) added one save for UMD.

KSC, which lost 15-6 earlier this season to Eastern Conn., will be looking for the upset win and the LEC's NCAA automatic berth on Saturday.  "We're going to try to make some adjustments against them, Theriault said.  "They're a very strong senior team and we're going to have to equalize some of their top guns."