LOWELL, Mass. - Sophomore midfielder Dakota Clark (Bedford, N.H.) amassed four goals in his debut to lead the UMass Lowell Men's Lacrosse team to a 10-9 season opening victory against Quinnipiac on Saturday afternoon at Cushing Field Complex.

UMass Lowell has now beaten Quinnipiac in three straight years to open the season. The Bobcats fall to 0-2 on the year with the loss.

"It was a great game, we got out ground balled on the face-off a bit, it was tough, I really give our guys a lot of credit," said UMass Lowell Head Coach Ed Stephenson. "We limited our turnovers to just 12 and that was important today. We really had to take care of the ball and we did, so that was a big factor in the end. I thought we did a great job offensively with fewer possessions and bouncing back."

UMass Lowell went on to score four of the final five goals in the contest to seal the win for the River Hawks with tallies from Harry Morrill (Hyde Park, Mass.), Clark and two from Kyle Laforge (Tyngsboro, Mass.). LaForge's goal with 3:06 to play ended up being the game-winning goal, as Quinnpiac scored with under a minute left in regulation, but the goal was waived off due to a crease violation.

Clark scored his third to open the scoring in the third quarter and then Quinnipiac answered with four straight goals in a span of 2:30. 

The River Hawks held a 5-4 lead at the half vs. the Warriors on two goals by Domenic Giachello (Somers, Conn.) in the second quarter and another goal by Clark. Giachello and Laforge each finished the day with three points (2g,1a).

Quinnipiac opened the scoring in the game with two goals in the first five minutes of the game by Will Abbott and John DeLucia, but the River Hawks responded a little over two minutes later with freshman attackman Conor Foley's (Walpole, Mass.) first career tally and Clark's first goal with the River Hawks just 35 seconds apart.

Sophomore goalie Hunter Braun (Hartland, Mich.) amassed 10 saves in the win, while Nick DiMuccio also recorded 10 stops in the losing effort for Quinnipiac.

Senior defender Cam Hult (Nashua, N.H.) finished the day with four caused turnovers and three ground balls for the River Hawks. 

The River Hawks return to action on Saturday, February 15th against Boston University. Game time from Cushing Field Complex is 1 p.m. 

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