KEENE, N.H. 05/14/06 - Sean Panora (South Windsor, Conn.) had six goals and an assist to lead top seed Keene State College a 19-10 victory over second-seed Wheaton College in the championship game of the ECAC Division III New England men's lacrosse tournament played Sunday at Owl Athletic Complex. 

It was KSC's first-ever ECAC title. The Owls, making their fourth trip to the tournament, had previously lost in semifinal rounds to Babson College (11-9) in 2002, Endicott College (13-12 OT) in 2003, and Western New England College (10-6) in 2004.  

"We've been in the ECAC tournament four times and we've never won it until now," said KSC coach Mark Theriault.  "We knew that if we were going to come into the tournament this year, we wanted to win the whole thing.  The guys played two great games and got the job done." 

With the victory, Keene State (13-3) set a new program mark for wins in a season. The previous record (12) was held by the 2002 Owl squad. Wheaton College, also making its first trip to the title game, concludes its season at 9-7-1. 

Keene State outscored Wheaton by a 9-3 margin in the deciding third quarter to go ahead 15-6.  Panora, who was selected the tournament's Most Outstanding Player, scored four of his goals during the stretch. 

The Lyons made a late charge in the fourth period with consecutive goals by seniors Adam Cohen (Montpelier, Vt.) and John Sharry (Westwood, Mass.) to close the deficit (18-9), but the Owls held them to just one more goal in the final seven minutes.  

The two teams kept a close game for the first two periods.  Wheaton's Taylor Jackson (Middlesex, Vt.) scored just 53 seconds into the second stanza to bring the Lyons within one (4-3), but the Owls responded with goals from Ryan Hazelton (Chester, N.H.) and Panora to go into the break with a 6-3 lead. 

Panora got plenty of offensive help from his teammates.  Greg Gonzales (Yorktown Heights, N.Y.) had four goals, Hazelton chipped in with three goals, and Peter Lauranzano (Beverly, Mass.) and Tony Santa Fe (Derry, N.H.) each finished with a pair of goals.  Lauranzano also dished out five assists in the game. 

Cohen led the Lyons with three goals.  Sharry and Jackson had two goals apiece. 

KSC goalie Matt Johnson (Derry, N.H./12 saves) had a strong day in goal before giving way to Brad Bishop (Brunswick, Me./three saves) late in the fourth quarter.  Sophomore Jeremy Beech (West Newbury, Mass.) finished with six saves for Wheaton.