Amherst, Mass. - First-year Mike Rowbotham (Stittsville, Ontario) netted a pair of goals to lead the the Amherst College Lord Jeff men's ice hockey team to a 2-1 New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) win over the visiting Trinity College Bantams at Orr Rink this afternoon afternoon.  Trinity falls to 2-4 overall and 1-3 in the NESCAC, while Amherst improves to 5-1.

Amherst netted the game's first score just 1:05 after the opening faceoff when senior co-captain Eddie Effinger (Belleville, Ill.) slotted a pass from the left circle to Rowbotham in front who beat Trinity sophomore netminder Benjamin Coulthard (South Windsor, Conn.) with a quick wrist shot for his first collegiate goal.  Hoping to extend the Amherst lead, sophomore forward Brian Safstrom (Woodinville, Wash.) tracked down a loose puck in front of the net with just over 10 minutes left in the frame, forcing Coulthard to make a sprawling kick-save before Rowbotham ripped a hard shot from the right circle into the goaltender's glove.  Charging forward on a four-on-four situation with under five minutes remaining in the first, Trinity senior Sean McCarthy (Duxbury, Mass.) generated the Bantams' first good scoring opportunity, evading a pair of Jeff defensemen before coming in on goal, but the oncoming forward's shot found the pads of Amherst goalie Jonathan La Rose (Boyle, Alberta) to keep the visitors scoreless.

On a power play early in the second, the Lord Jeffs upped their margin, burying their second goal of the afternoon 4:52 into the period. Receiving a pass from the point from first-year Aaron Duetsch (Lloyd Harbor, N.Y.), Rowbotham lifted a shot from the right side over Coulthard's shoulder for his second tally of the contest.  Despite getting outshot 12-10 for the remainder of the period, the Lord Jeffs came out strong to start the final frame, with sophomore forward Andrew Kurlandski (Kirkwood, Mo.) testing Coulthard with a one-timer from point-blank range just under the 19-minute mark.

Looking to pad the Amherst lead with 7:49 to go, junior Dylan Trumble (Calgary, Alberta) redirected a Jamie Hawkrigg '13 (Waterdown, Ontartio) pass in front toward the Bantam cage but Coulthard made a nice glove save on the near post to keep Trinity within two.  Needing an extra skater down 2-0 late, the Bantams pulled Coulthard and broke through on a Jeffrey Menard (Burlington, Mass.) goal with just 1:06 left, but the Jeff defense bore down the rest of the way, protecting the home team's hard-fought 2-1 win.  Amherst, which held a 34-28 shot advantage, went 1-for-2 on the power play while killing all five Trinity man-up situations. La Rose finished with 33 saves while Coulthard made 26 stops.

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