Huskies at UMass Boston on Tuesday (3:30 p.m.)

            GORHAM, Maine -- Sophomore Tyler Reilly (Grafton, Mass.) and junior Tyler McKelvie (Acton, Mass./Acton-Boxboro) combined for 11 goals as the visiting Keene State College Owls cruised past the University of Southern Maine Huskies, 19-7, in a Little East Conference men's lacrosse match Saturday afternoon at Hannaford Field.

            The win was the fifth straight for the LEC leading Owls, and improved their record to 8-4 and 5-0 in the conference.  The Huskies dropped their third straight game to slip to 6-5 and 1-4 in LEC play.

            Reilly led all scorers earning nine points on six goals and three assists, while McKelvie scored five times.  Sophomore Rob Hart (Londonderry, N.H.) added three goals and two assists.  Rookie Frank Bacarella (Monroe, Conn./Masuk) contributed two goals and one assist.

            Sophomore Dylan Florian (West Hartford, Conn./Kinswood-Oxford) and senior Jack Rogers (Acton, Mass./Acton-Boxboro) split the goaltending chores for the Owls as each played a half.  Florian picked up his eighth win of the season after playing the first half and making nine saves.  Rogers played the second half and registered four saves.

            Senior Burleigh Desjardins (Brunswick, Maine) led the Huskies scoring three times.  Junior Austin Watts (Westbrook, Maine) scored twice, and sophomore Keegan Smith (West Gardiner, Maine/Gardiner Area) contributed a goal and an assist.

            Rookie goalies Zack Bessette (Readfield, Maine/Maranacook) and John Bossi (Billerica, Mass.) played a half apiece for the Huskies and combined for seven saves.

            McKelvie put the Owls on top just 12 seconds into the game converting a feed from Hart, and Reilly scored twice before the game was four minutes old to give the Owls a 3-0 lead.  Keene traded goals 2 for 1 over the remainder of the period as Desjardins scored twice for the Huskies while Reilly and Hart, and then Hart and McKelvie countered for the Owls.

            The Owls blew the game open in the second quarter scoring three times (Hart, Reilly, McKelvie) in a span of 36 seconds.  The three-goal outburst triggered a run of six Keene State goals before halftime to give KSC a 14-3 lead at intermission.

            Keene State continued to dominate the play in the third quarter.  Watts scored for the Huskies in the opening minute, and Smith tallied in the final minute.  In between, the Owls put up five more scores to go into the fourth quarter with a comfortable 19-5 lead.

            USM scored the only goals of the fourth quarter as Desjardins and sophomore Seth Wing (West Gardiner, Maine/Gardiner Area) found the net.

            Southern Maine, helped by a 14-6 edge in the fourth quarter, out shot Keene State 45-42.  Keene won the battle of the ground balls 34-25, and was successful on 23 of 24 clear attempts.

            Southern Maine is on the road on Tuesday (3:30 p.m.) to play at the University of Massachusetts Boston.  Keene State hosts in-state rival Plymouth State University on Tuesday (5:00 p.m.). 

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