Connecticut College Sports Roundup

Amherst College held an early lead over Connecticut College in a men's lacrosse game on Saturday. In Erie, Pa. the women's water polo team won two of three matches. The following information was provided by William Tomasian, sports information director at Connecticut College:

Men's Lacrosse: Amherst 10, Conn College 3

The Amherst College men's lacrosse team jumped out to an early 5-0 lead and never looked back during Saturday afternoon's impressive 10-3 win over NESCAC rival Connecticut College at Gooding Field.

First-years Aaron Mathias (Ridgefield, CT) and Devin Acton (Sudbury, MA) scored a combined seven goals and junior goalie Sam Jakimo (Woodbury, NY) turned away 10 shots to lead the Jeffs, who improve to 3-1 (1-1 NESCAC). The Camels (1-3, 0-2) got two goals from John Lyons and one from Ryan Hayes.

The Amherst offense dominated the first quarter, keeping the ball in the Connecticut end for the majority of the period. Mathias opened the scoring for Amherst by ripping a shot past Connecticut goalie Rob Moccia and into the top netting. Acton doubled the Amherst lead five minutes later, and a second goal from Mathias gave the Jeffs an early 3-0 lead.

Amherst extended its lead to 5-0 early in the second quarter. Sophomore Ramsey Bates (McLean, VA) scored with a hard crank shot, and two minutes later junior Alex Fox (Garden City, NY) outran the Connecticut defense and beat Moccia low.

Lyons scored midway into the second quarter to cut the Amherst lead to 5-1, but the Jeffs responded just over five minutes later when Mathias tallied his third goal of the day with only nine seconds on the clock. Jakimo came up with huge saves throughout the first half, including one denial from point-blank range, and Amherst headed into halftime holding a 6-1 lead.

The Camels opened up the second half with scores by Hayes and Lyons in a span of two minutes, but another goal from Bates gave Amherst a 7-3 lead with 10 minutes to play in the third.

Amherst maintained control throughout the final 20 minutes of the game, as Matthias added his fourth goal of the day and Acton added two more to provide Amherst the 10-3 win.

Amherst first-year Duncan Morrissey (Ridgefield, CT) gave Amherst an edge in the face-off battle, winning eight of 14 on the day. Bates picked up a team-high five ground balls, with Will Reed '12 (Riverside, CT) adding four.

Moccia finished with five saves for the Camels, who failed the score in the first and fourth quarters. Chuck Czerkawski was 9-for-15 on face-off attempts and led his team with five ground balls.

The Lord Jeffs will look to build on their three-game win streak Tuesday afternoon at 4:30 p.m. when Eastern Connecticut State University comes to town. The Camels will head to Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to take on Union College.

Women's Water Polo

The women's water polo team played three matches on Saturday, posting wins in two of them.

Connecticut College defeated Macalester College 11-6 in the first pairing. In the afternoon, the Camels lost to Wheaton College (Ill.) in another 11-6 score. The team came back in the last game, beating Penn State - Behrend 8-6.