RINDGE, N.H. (March 18, 2017) – The Franklin Pierce University men's lacrosse team began Northeast-10 Conference play on Saturday against Bentley University at Sodexo Field and the Ravens were upended by the guest Falcons, 13-5. With the win, the Falcons soar to 2-1, 1-0 NE10 and the loss which was the Crimson and Grey's first of the year, sends them to 2-1, 0-1 NE10.

Bentley held the advantage in the faceoff x as they won 19-of-21 (90.4%) of the draws. The guests also scooped up 20 more groundballs than the Ravens and notched goals on two of three man up chances. The Ravens forced the Falcons into 17 turnovers on the afternoon compared to 11 miscues for the Ravens.

Leading the way for Bentley was defender Alex Astarita who racked up a hat trick (three goals) on five shots to go along with a game-high two assists. Sam Hurley and Nigel Reiff tallied two goals and one helper each. For the Ravens, junior middie Sean Delea (Hampstead, N.H.) paced the Raven offense with two goals.

Bentley started the contest by manufacturing two scores. Chris Wiggins cracked the scoring column at the 12:04 mark by bouncing in a shot from the top of the circle. 53 seconds later, John Wheeler upped the early lead to 2-0 when he received a pass from behind the cage from Astarita and Wheeler smoked a one timer into the low part of the net.

FPU finally got on the board when Delea, who was set up on the right wing, spun off his defender and bounced his shot attempt past Falcon goalie Ben Bath to cut the early deficit to one. The guests then responded with three unanswered goals to jump ahead 5-1 after the first quarter.

Trailing 5-1, sophomore attack Luke Tracy (Pelham, N.H.) caught the rock in the box to complete a successful Raven clear. Tracy then drove towards the crease to the right and ripped a running shot top shelf to cut into the lead at 5-2. Bentley's offense would take over the game as they put in eight consecutive goals while holding the Ravens to zero scores until midway through the fourth quarter.

Raven junior goaltender Connor Wacksman (Guilderland, N.Y.) stopped 12 shots in 55:58 in net as he was saddled with his first loss of the year. Ben Bath allowed only three goals while making nine saves in 53:07 of time in net.

The Ravens head out on the road next Friday, March 24th for an NE10 contest at American International with game time set for 7:00 p.m.

For more information on Franklin Pierce Athletics, please visit the official website of Franklin Pierce Athletics (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu). Also be sure to follow the Ravens through the Department of Athletics' official Facebook page (http://www.facebook.com/FranklinPierceRavens), its YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/franklinpiercesports) and its Twitter feed (http://twitter.com/FPUathletics). Fans wishing to purchase Franklin Pierce men's lacrosse apparel can do so at the Department of Athletics' online store (http://athletics.franklinpierce.edu/store).