KEENE, N.H. 3/6/10 - The Keene State College men's lacrosse team, led by Griffin Meehan's (Simsbury, Conn.) seven-point game, defeated in-state rival New England College 21-6 in their 2010 home opener at Owl Athletic Complex.

The Owls jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead on goals from Meehan and freshman midfielder James Galloway (Simsbury, Conn.) in the first quarter. The Pilgrims evened the game at two, with two goals in 1:19 from seniors Matt Vozzolo (Somers, Conn.) and Clint McDonough (Mountain Lakes, N.J.).

After that, the Owls went on a 13-1 run into the third period, with Taylor Jette (Simsbury, Conn.) scoring three of his four goals during that stretch, to take a 15-3 lead with 11:46 in the third.  Jamie LeSage (Exeter, N.H.) netted his two goals in that span, as well as four of Meehan's six tallies.

The Pilgrims ended their scoring drought with a goal from junior midfielder John Gabriel (West Nyack, N.Y.) half-way through the third period.

Vozzolo would add another to lead NEC with two goals on the afternoon and junior attack Matt Carey (Medford, N.Y.) would score his first goal of 2010 to round out the Pilgrims scoring.

A total of ten Owls netted goals in the victory, with Matt Shairer (Wrentham, Mass.) scoring twice and Easton Kezer (Derry, N.H.), Ryan Shairs (Beverly, Mass.), Steve Cicalese (Trumball, Conn.), Kyle Barnett (Londonderry, N.H.) and Cam Sousa (Cheshire, Conn.) each finding the back of the net once.

LeSage led the way for the Owls with 11 groundballs and was 17-22 on the face-off. The Pilgrims got a team-high four groundballs from sophomore Chris Harris (Baltimore, MD).

KSC junior netminder Alec Corliss (Waltham, Mass.) allowed only five goals and made five stops in 45 minutes of action to pick up his first win in 2010. NEC goalie Nick Aquaviva (Syracuse, N.Y.) allowed 17 goals and made 16 saves in the losing effort.

As a team, the Owls dominated on the face-offs winning 21-31 and out-shot NEC 61-22 on the game.

Keene State returns to action, Thursday, March 11th, with a game at 4 p.m. against Wheaton College at Owl Athletic Complex.