TROY, N.Y. - The Keene State Owls dropped their first game of the 2019 campaign at RPI 15-6 on Saturday afternoon at ECAV Stadium.

Records

• Keene State: 0-1
• RPI: 1-0

How It Happened 

Neither team could find the back of the net in the opening seven minutes of action, until Cooper Urban broke the scoring drought with a tally from a Lucas Bastarache pass. RPI scored the first four goals of the game with Urban getting the second as well, followed up by goals from Owen Putman and JT Kelly, both from Bastarache assists.

KSC finally got on the board with 15 seconds left in the first quarter, with Joe Nutting scoring the Owls first goal of the season off a feed from Jordan Caito. The second quarter began with JT Kelly's second goal of the game off a feed from Bastarache. Dave Wiedenfeld scored an unassisted goal to cut the lead to 5-2, but RPI followed with two more unanswered goals on tallies from JP McGrady and Urban to finish the half ahead 7-2.

The Owls scored two straight to open the third quarter when Nutting scored his second of the game on a nice feed from Connor Nolan before Wiedenfeld scored his second of the contest to cut the lead to 7-4. The Engineers answered with two more of their own before Caito opened his scoring account with a feed from Nutting. Tim Osislo finished up the last score of the third quarter to bring RPI's lead to 10-5.

The Engineers scored the first four goals of the fourth quarter before Wiedenfeld fired in his third for the hat trick. RPI tallied their last goal from Robbie Gale with 20 seconds left to secure the 15-6 victory.

 
Inside the Crease 

• Cooper Urban led all players with six points, he recorded a game high four goals to go along with two assists. The Engineers also saw Owen Putman and JT Kelly tally hat tricks.
• Wiedenfeld led the Owls with three goals, while Nutting recorded two goals and Caito one.
• Kyle Botsford picked up six saves for RPI, while J.J. Tinney recorded 13 saves in the loss.
• Steve Hamel picked up a game high nine ground balls while going 10-17 at the 'x'.
• RPI rattled off 59 shots to the Owls 29 and held a 43-28 edge in ground balls over KSC.  

Up Next 

• Keene State travels to Western New England University in a mid-week non-conference game, as the Owls play the Golden Bears on Tuesday, February 26 at 4:00 p.m.
• RPI visits Coast Guard Academy on Wednesday, February 27 at 6:00 p.m.