Box Score GORHAM, Maine –
Joe Nutting and
Andrew Miller each scored five goals to highlight a laundry list of Owl scorers – 14 to be exact – as the Keene State College men's lacrosse team dismantled the University of Southern Maine 26-6 in a Little East Conference contest Saturday afternoon at Hannaford Field.
Records
- Keene State: 4-0, 3-0 LEC
- Southern Maine: 1-5, 0-4 LEC
How It Happened
The Owls never trailed in the game and used a burst of nine consecutive goals spanning the first and second quarters to turn a 3-3 game into a 12-3 lead and that wound up being more than enough to win another conference contest – and another matchup with ease in 2021. KSC has outscored their opponents 79-22 this season, winning every game by at least 12 goals. Nutting, who has a team best 15 goals and 10 assists in four games, scored all five of his tallies today in the first half, three of which came consecutively in the second quarter – including two in 10 seconds – as Keene State went up 12-3 with 2:07 left until the break. He had opened the scoring at the 9:56 mark of the first quarter and also found the back of the net with 48 seconds left in the second to make it 14-4 before USM's Aidan Mitchell scored 35 ticks later to make it 14-5 at the break.
The Huskies, who were not really in the game for the final 30 minutes anyway, scored just one time in the second half, and that did not come until Keene State had reeled off another 10 straight goals, all in the third quarter, to make it a 24-5 rout. The half started with Miller, a freshman from East Longmeadow, Mass. who had scored twice on the season, scoring four times in 3:01, the first of which came just 36 seconds after halftime.
Cooper Cioffi put the Owls at 20 goals with still 7:36 left in the third on KSC's only man-up goal of the day in four chances (they also had a man-down goal, but all the others were at even strength). Keene State would score 10 goals in the second quarter alone, which is more shots than Southern Maine would record in the final 30 minutes (9). The Owls outshot the Huskies 24-4 in the third and 63-21 in the contest. KSC also won a whopping 27-of-35 faceoffs, including 21-of-22 in the middle two quarters where they scored 19 goals combined.
Colby Quiet has scored in each one of his first four career games and won 27-of-32 at the faceoff "x" today while also picking up by far a game-high 17 ground balls. He has 27 ground balls in the past two contests and eight goals and four assists on the season.
Keene State was able to get action for four different goalies in the contest.
Chase Chamberlin (4-0) won by making a pair of stops in 30 minutes.
Alex Fawcett played the third quarter and made one stop before
Charlie Giuliotti (1 save) and
Baylor Bridges (1 save) played in the final 15 minutes. Giuilotti was making his first collegiate appearance. Nathan Plourde (0-2) was under siege the whole day for USM and stopped 17 of 43 shots.
Inside the Crease
- KSC has featured a balanced offense all season, with 16 different players recording a goal and 20 different players a point.
- Nutting surpassed 100 career points this afternoon with his season-high five goals and four assists. He has 67 goals and 36 assists (103 points) in 23 games spanning three seasons, two of which have been abbreviated. The Amherst, N.H. native scored 45 times in 16 games in 2019.
- Keene State lost the first-ever matchup against Southern Maine but has won the last 20. Today ties the most lopsided differential between the two teams, with the Owls winning 25-5 in Maine in 2016. They have scored 20 or more goals five straight times against USM.
Up Next
- Keene State goes to Castleton University (0-6, 0-1 LEC) for a 7:00 p.m. faceoff on Tuesday, April 20. The Spartans have struggled mightily in 2021, including a 30-6 home loss to UMass-Boston this afternoon.
- Southern Maine stays home to take on Plymouth State University (1-2, 0-1 LEC) on Wednesday, April 21 at 4:00 p.m.
