Lyndonville, VT - Playing at home for the first time this season, the Northern Vermont University-Lyndon men's lacrosse team took an early two goal lead against North Atlantic Conference East Division co-leader Thomas College.  The Hornets were unable to sustain the early momentum however, as Thomas pulled away for a 23-10 victory.  Thomas improves to 3-1 overall and in conference while the Hornets remain winless in three conference games and four starts overall.

The Hornets struck first just over three minutes into the contest when Anthony Townsend (Pembroke, MA) scored.  Less than a minute later Lyndon's Benjamin Cheever (Johnson, VT) beat Thomas starting goalkeeper Benjamin Gregoire to make it 2-0, Hornets.

The lead stood up until there was 3:39 to go in the quarter, when the Terriers' Daniel MacWhinnie scored to get Thomas on the board.  Matthew Crisco's unassisted tally with 33 seconds to go in the period tied things.  Thomas won the ensuing faceoff,  12 seconds later MacWhinnie found William Heywood, who put a shot past Hornet keeper Aaron Florence (Lutz, FL) to put the Terriers in front 3-2 at the end of the period.

Thomas scored twice, with goals from Max Irons and MacWhinnie, 23 seconds apart in the opening minutes of the second quarter to extend their lead to 5-2.  Townsend's unassisted effort at the 9:22 mark brought the Hornets back to within 5-3, but Thomas responded less than a minute later when Irons scored with an assist from Irons.  MacWhinnie, Heywood, and Colby Nadeau added scored later in the quarter to send Thomas into halftime with a 9-3 advantage.

The Terriers broke the game open with four more goals in the first 3:28 of the third quarter, extending their lead to 13-3.  First Crisco found Irons, then Kieran McGrath scored unassisted.  Nathan Carter picked up a pair of assists on Jakeb Weston's man-up goal and Crisco's second tally of the game.

Taner Onor (East Montpelier, VT) broke the Thomas run with an unassisted goal at the 8:34 mark.  Then the Hornets' Luke Violante (Ambler, PA) created a turnover in Thomas territory and fired a shot past Patrick Buxton to narrow the deficit to 13-5.  After an Irons goal for Thomas, Onor scored again to make it 14-6.  Thomas then got three late goals from William Trippe, MacWhinnie, and Irons to extend their lead to 17-6 through three periods.

Lyndon scored twice in the early stages of the fourth period.  First Cheever found Townsend for a goal, then Cheever followed that up with an unassisted tally at the 12:34 mark.  However Thomas responded with four consecutive goals to build their lead to 21-8 with just under 8:00 to go.

The teams traded goals in the final minutes.  Onor scored a man-up goal with an assist from Townsend, but Nadeau quickly responded with a goal for the Terriers.  Then with less than a minute to go Townsend picked up his fourth goal of the game in a man-up situation, and Heywood's man-up score with just 13 seconds remaining closed out the scoring.

MacWhinnie finished with five goals and three assists to pace Thomas.  Crisco, Heywood, and Irons each found the back of the net four times.  Townsend's four goals paced the Hornets.  Onor added three goals and Cheever scored twice.  Irons recorded a game high 10 ground balls, while Justin Servidori (Yarmouth, MA) was Lyndon's leader in that category with nine.

Gregoire and Buxton each played a half in the Thomas goal, with Gregoire getting credit for the win.  The pair had three saves on 13 shots on goal.  Meanwhile Florence made 26 stops on 49 Terrier shots on goal.

Thomas outshot Lyndon 81-23 for the game and held a 76-41 advantage in ground balls.  The Terriers won 24 of 36 faceoffs and committed 29 turnovers to 38 for the Hornets.

Lyndon will close out the season with a home contest against Husson University next Saturday.  The opening faceoff on Varsity Field is scheduled for 1:00 pm.