MILTON, Mass. – The Curry College Men's lacrosse team defeated Nichols College, 17-10 on Saturday afternoon at the Walter M. Katz Field. With the win the Colonels improve to 9-4 overall and 1-4 in the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC) while the loss drops the Bison to 4-9 on the season and 0-5 in the CCC.

The Colonels were paced by an eight-goal effort from sophomore Matt Serra (Haverhill, Mass.) and was complimented by freshman MJ Urbano (Wakefield, Mass.) who netted four goals and added a pair of assists. Senior Joe Shea (Arlington, Mass.) also scored two goals and was followed by junior Jack McMenomey (West Linn, Org.) who scored one goal and assisted on three others. Junior classmates Brandon Flaim (Pembroke, Mass.) and Dominick Marcella (Hull, Mass.) also added a goal apiece with Flaim also recording an assist.

Junior Tyler Sikich (Hermosa Beach, Calif.) led the way for Nichols scoring a trio of goals and adding an assist while being followed closely by senior Anthony Verville (Portland, Maine) who scored two goals. Five other Bison also scored once to round out the scoresheet.

Urbano led the Colonels out of the gate registering a goal just under two minutes into the first quarter but was equaled shortly after by freshman Brayden Carroll (Shrewsbury, Mass.) to tie the game up. The tie would not last and Curry rattled off three unanswered goals from Serra, Urbano and Shea to go up 4-1 with just under nine minutes to go in the first frame.

Senior Brian Hancock (Groton, Mass.) answered but would be upstaged by the one-two punch of Serra and Marcella to distance the Colonels 6-2. Sophomore MacKenzie Martin (Merrimack, N.H.) would get the last laugh of the first quarter and made the score 6-3 after one full quarter of play.

Serra got things going in the second quarter and Urbano followed his lead, netting a goal thirty seconds after him. Sikich responded almost two minutes later only for Flaim to put one in the back of the net on a man-up advantage. Verville brought the score back to 9-5 for the Bison but goals from Serra and McMenomey before the half ended put the score at 11-5 heading into intermission.

The first goal in the third quarter took fifteen minutes to come but Verville finally found the back of the net for the first and last time that quarter, putting the score at 11-6 going into the final frame.

Serra rattled off a hat trick in just under five minutes and was followed by Shea to balloon the lead to 15-6. Sikich responded but Serra and Urbano found the back of the net two seconds apart to close out the Colonels scoring at 17. Sikich scored one more time and was followed by junior Paul Tessier (Mirror Lake, N.H.) and sophomore Jack Zaremski (Dorchester, Mass.) to put the score at the eventual final of 17-10.

Senior Shane O'Brien (East Falmouth, Mass.) recorded the win saving ten shots to improve to 7-4. Freshman Josh Teller (Milford, Conn.) also saw time in net for the Colonels, allowing two goals against in the final four minutes. Freshman Brian McKinley (Nashua, N.H.) spent the most time in goal for Nichols and received the loss in an eight-save performance while sophomore James Keane (Franklin, Mass.) made 14 saves for the Bison.

Curry won the ground ball department 42-21; face offs 22-31 and successfully cleared the ball 15 times on 17 attempts compared to 15-18 for Nichols.

The Colonels return to conference action on Wednesday as they travel to Western New England for a 7 p.m. face off.  The Bison host Endicott College on Wednesday at 4 p.m. for a conference matchup.