NORTH DARTMOUTH, MA-Visiting Keene State scored seven goals in the first quarter and went on to defeat the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth's men's lacrosse team, 15-6, in the 2010 Little East Conference opener for both teams at Cressy Field Saturday. The victory was the Owls first win away from Owl Athletic Complex this season.

“This game puts us back on track,” said KSC head coach Mark Theriault. “I thought we played great offensively in the first half which allowed us to get a lot of guys some quality playing time.”

Senior midfielder Jamie LeSage (Exeter, NH) scored three times and freshman attackman Taylor Jette (Simsbury, CT) scored twice for the Owls in the first quarter to help the Owls jump out to a 7-1 lead.

In the second, the Owls continued to build on their lead and scored the only four goals of the period. Midfielder Ian Hart (Richmond, N.H.) scored twice in the period, as KSC built an 11-1 halftime lead.

The Corsairs outscored the Owls 5-4 in the third and fourth period, but the impressive KSC start lifted the Owls to a 15-6 victory.

Junior attackman Josh Arsenault and senior attackman Andrew Foster each scored twice for UMass Dartmouth. Jette had four goals for the Owls, while LeSage and Hart each added three.

Lesage also led the way winning 10-of-14 face-offs, while senior defender Kyle Barnett (Londonderry, N.H.) scooped up five of KSC's 29 groundballs.

The Owls out-shot the Corsairs, 41-30 in the contest, and were successful on 15-19 clears while UMD could only convert on 14-27. UMD failed to convert either of their man-up opportunities, while KSC was one-for-four.

Sophomore goaltender Cameron Crown made 14 saves for UMass Dartmouth, while freshman Jason Lesser (Brewster, NY) made 16 for KSC.

Keene State improved to 4-5 and 1-0 in the LEC with the victory.

The Owls will host Salem State next Saturday.

“Salem gave us a good game last year,” said Theriault. “We are definitely going to have to do everything right if we want to come away with the victory.”

(Courtesy UMass-Dartmouth Sports Information)