LOUDONVILLE, N.Y.  –  The University of Hartford men's lacrosse team wrapped up its four-game road stand with a convincing, 14-9 win at Siena on Tuesday afternoon at Siena Turf Field. Six different Hawks contributed to the offense as Hartford never trailed in the contest.

Hartford won its second straight and improved to 5-4 on the campaign, while the Saints dropped to 4-6.

Leading 10-7 at the end of three quarters, the Hawks dominated the fourth on both ends, scoring four times while keeping Siena off the board for nearly the entire stanza. After holding the Saints without a goal for nearly 22 minutes in a stretch that extended back to the third quarter, the home team struck twice in the final 16 seconds to trim a 14-7 deficit to 14-9 before the last horn sounded.  

A trio of rookies enjoyed career-best performances on Tuesday afternoon for the Hawks. Attackman Justin Huggins recorded his first career hat trick and finished with a game-best four goals while Trevor O'Brien scored twice. Between the pipes, Ryan Vanderford turned aside 13 shots while allowing just eight to improve to 5-4 on the season. Senior Kevin O'Shea compiled his third hat trick in as many games and added three assists to lead all scorers with a season-best six points.

Hartford bolted from the gate out of the opening faceoff, scoring three unanswered within the first 7:06 to take a quick 3-0 advantage. Huggins accounted for two of those goals, both of which were assisted by O'Shea, who went on to put the Hawks on top, 3-0, with his first score of the afternoon. At the 6:52 mark of the opening quarter, the Saints snapped the run and got on the board, but O'Shea struck again four minutes later to regain the three-goal edge for Hartford.

Siena's Conor Prunty scored before the end of the first quarter to make it a 4-2 game before he opened up the second with another goal that pulled his side within one with 13:36 to play in the quarter. The Saints did complete the comeback and knotted up the score at 4-all with a Kieran Donohue marker with 10:22 left until halftime, but Hartford answered back by netting four of the next five goals to go up, 8-5, at the half.

Four different Hawks scored during that 4-1 spurt as Huggins' third goal of the game made it a 7-5 advantage before classmate Griffin Feiner's strike with nine seconds to go provided Hartford with its three-goal halftime edge. The scoring surge extended into the third quarter and Hartford took what was then its largest lead of the game (9-5) early on a goal by sophomore Jaedon Henderson 50 seconds in.

Chris Robertson finished the game with a hat trick for the Saints while Conor Prunty and Jordan Barlow rounded out the multiple goal-scorers with two apiece. Starting goalie Nick Capalbo conceded the first eight goals of the game and made six saves. In relief, Tommy Cordts rejected three shots over the final 30 minutes.

Hartford hosts UMBC on Saturday, April 4 at 1 p.m.

THE TURNING POINT:
With the Hawks leading by four goals early in the third, the Saints pulled with two with 6:07 left in the stanza on back-to-back scores from Jordan Barlow and Jon-Michael Tokar. From there, Hartford dominated on both ends of the field, and rattled off five unanswered scores to take a 14-7 lead with 1:14 remaining in regulation. Keeping the Saints scoreless for nearly 22 minutes, five different Hawks contributed to the 5-0 run as the visiting team ran away with the game and put it out of reach.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS: 

·         The Hawks held edges in shots (37-33) and ground balls (30-29)

·         Siena held a 14-of-27 advantage at the faceoff X, but in a dominant fourth quarter, Hartford won the first four and went 5-of-7 during that stretch

·         Hartford committed a season-low in turnovers against Siena with 10, misfiring on just two of its 16 clearing opportunities

·         The Hawks' man-down unit killed all three of its penalties and added a goal at the 5:45 mark of the fourth quarter

·         Hartford's man-up unit went 1-of-4

·         Freshman Ryan Vanderford registered 13 saves, a career-high, including five in the opening quarter to help the Hawks build an early 4-2 lead 

NEWS AND NOTES: 

·         Scoring its second-straight win, Hartford improves to 5-4

·         The Hawks have won two of the last three against the Saints and improve to 12-9 in the all-time series

·         Freshman Ryan Vanderford enjoyed a career day tending the goal for the Hawks as he finished with a personal-best 13 saves

·         Also recording a personal-best day was rookie attacker Justin Huggins, who recorded his first career hat trick after scoring four times

·         Senior Kevin O'Shea netted his third hat trick in as many games and fourth on the season

·         A midfielder, O'Shea added three assists to finish with a game- and season-high six points

·         Freshman Trevor O'Brien also recorded a career best in goals (2) and points (2)

·         Hartford concluded a four game road stretch where it went 2-2 with wins over Siena and Binghamton and losses at Holy Cross and then-ranked No. 13 Albany

·         When scoring in double-digits, Hartford is 5-0 this season 

UP NEXT:
Hartford plays at home for the first time in 20 days as it resumes America East action by welcoming the UMBC Retrievers to Al-Marzook Field on Saturday afternoon. The Hawks and Retrievers are scheduled to face off at 1 p.m.