In a highly anticipated matchup against a familiar foe at Bayside Field Wednesday night, the Roger Williams University men’s lacrosse team fell to an offensively surging Endicott College team 14-5.

Offense was not a hard thing to come by throughout the game as nine goals alone were posted by the end of the first quarter. It did not take much time for the offense to get cooking either, as Gulls sophomore midfielder Andrew Soucy scored 56 seconds into the game. The Hawks quickly responded as sophomore attacker Jude Marzec fired a shot past the keeper. However, the onslaught of goals by the Gulls continued as they rattled off four goals from the 12:02 mark to the 2:52 mark of the quarter.

Eventually, a defensive stop by the Hawks led to a smooth transition goal by sophomore midfielder Jack Sylvia to make the score 5-2 Gulls, but Endicott closed the quarter out with two more goals to extend their lead to 7-2.

The second quarter continued more of the same after Justin Macintyre scored his sixth goal of the season off an assist from freshman Tim Mullane. Endicott went on to score five unanswered goals including two by freshmen attacker Jack Sutherland. With six seconds left in the half, freshman Tim Mullane added a goal to his statline from an assist off Chris Bova to stop the bleeding and send the Hawks into the half trailing 12-4.

When asked what his message to his team was in the second half, coach Marty Kelly explained: “I just think we needed to gain possession, Endicott is so good in faceoffs, it’s really tough to get possession and against a team like that you just have to limit their opportunities.”

As the second half began, the Gulls offense was slowed down by RWU as they only put two goals up on the board. This trend continued into the final period as the Hawks scored the only goal in the period by way of freshman attacker Jared Grier off another assist by Bova.

Throughout the game, Endicott did have a clear advantage in face offs won (17-5), which ultimately led to eleven more total shots than the Hawks.   

“I think we played hard,” Kelly said. “We just got to keep competing and keep learning.”

In addition, Kelly emphasized that the Hawks needed to have more strategy when shooting.

“It’s not so much about speed as it is location,” he explained.

The Hawks, now 5-5 overall and 1-2 in the CCC, will look to bounce back on Saturday at Bayside Field at 12 p.m. against the University of New England Nor’easters.