BOX SCORE

AMHERST, Mass. – The University of Hartford men's lacrosse team fell behind early and could never recover against the No. 5 Massachusetts Minutemen as it suffered a 14-5 loss on Saturday afternoon at Garber Field.

The host team jumped out to a 5-0 advantage and never relinquished its lead to maintain its unblemished record in the 2012 season. The Minutemen quickly got on the scoreboard just 63 seconds into the game and continued its run with four more scores in the opening quarter.

With 1:07 remaining in the first quarter, senior Ryan Compitello netted the Hawks' first goal of the game to make it a 5-1 game after 15 minutes of play. 

The Hawks carried their momentum over into the second quarter with two more goals to trim its deficit to just two. Rookie Kevin O'Shea provided the offense with his 10th and 11th markers of the season at 12:24 and 11:55. Hartford would not come any closer than that however as Massachusetts closed out the half with three unanswered to provide the 8-3 margin heading in to the halftime break.

Following the intermission, the Minutemen went on a 5-0 to open up the third quarter and extend its lead to 13-3. Junior midfielder Jared Franze silenced Massachusetts' run after finishing on a feed from senior Martin Bowes for his third goal of the season to make it 13-4 at the conclusion of the third quarter.

Hartford and Massachusetts traded goals in the final period to provide the final score of 14-5 after 60 full minutes of play in Amherst.

Massachusetts moves to a perfect 6-0 mark on the season while Hartford falls to 1-4 overall.

O'Shea led the Hawks' scoring with a pair of goals while seniors Carter Bender and Compitello finished with two points each on one goal and an assist.

Massachusetts outshot the Hawks, 24-17, and held a commanding 15-of-22 advantage at the face-off X.

Following a three-game road stand, the Hawks return home for two games, starting on Wednesday with a 3:30 p.m. match-up against local rival Siena at Al-Marzook Field.