KEENE, N.H. 3/6/11 – Sophomore attack Taylor Jette (Simsbury, Conn.) scored five goals to lead the Keene State College men's lacrosse team to a 13-6 non-conference win over New England College at rainy Owl Athletic Complex on Sunday afternoon.  Originally scheduled for Saturday at NEC, the game was moved to Keene because of poor field conditions in Henniker.

Leading 5-3 at halftime, Keene State (2-0) broke open a close game by outscoring the Pilgrims 5-1 in the third quarter.  "That was the make it or break it quarter," said KSC Coach Mark Theriault. "We needed to strike first and dominate play so they couldn't get back in the game." 

Jette ignited the Owls surge with two goals and an assist in the quarter. He scored a breakaway goal to make it 6-3 and three minutes later set up Tom Montano (Old Lyme, Conn.), who was able to get a shot off just before getting hit in front of the net.  "We just wanted to stay simple," said Jette about the Owls' third quarter strategy.  "It was a two goal game and we wanted to get things going."

"Taylor had some nice transition goals," said Theriault.  "He played a pretty solid game."

KSC kept up the attack.  Junior Matt Crimmins (Saratoga Springs, N.Y.) and Jette, taking advantage of a man-up opportunity, scored goals 15 seconds apart to extend the Owls lead to 9-3.  Later in the quarter, sophomore Ian Hart (Richmond, N.H.) found Crimmins for his second goal of the quarter to make it 10-3.  

The Owls netted the first two goals of the fourth quarter to put the game away.  Senior Michael Araujo (Southboro, Mass.) scored from the right side and Jette found the back of the net on a turnaround shot to make it 12-4.

Crimmins and Araujo each had two goals while Hart had a strong game at midfield, finishing with a goal and three assists.

Senior Matt Carey (Medford, N.Y.) had two goals and an assist for the Pilgrims, who were playing in their season-opener. 

Sophomore Jason Lesser (Brewster, N.Y.) had another strong game in goal for Owls, stopping 13 shots.  Junior Nick Aquaviva (Syracuse, N.Y.) was busy in the NEC goal with 12 saves.

The Owls outshot the Pilgrims 46-32 and had a 33-26 advantage in ground balls. NEC won 12 of 22 face-offs.

Keene State will play two games during spring break week in Florida, including a clash against Geneseo (N.Y.) State.  Theriault knows his team can't make any mistakes against the 11th ranked Blue Knights.  "We might be able to get away with a couple of mistakes against New England College, but if we do that when we play SUNY-Geneseo they will take advantage of those opportunities. We need to be a little crisper then we were today.