Amherst, Mass. – Visiting Trinity College hung with the No. 4-ranked Amherst College men's lacrosse team for almost three quarters before the  Mammoths pulled away from the visiting Bantams down the stretch to post a 19-11 victory in New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) action Wednesday evening at Pratt Field.  Trinity completes its season with a 4-10 overall record and a 1-9 mark in the conference, while Amherst closes out its regular season with a 13-2 overall ledger and a 9-1 mark in league action.  The Mammoths will host Bowdoin in the NESCAC Championship Quarterfinals on Saturday.

Striking 2:19 into the matchup, Jon Coffey found Evan Wolf alone behind the Bantams defense to give the home team a 1-0 led before Coffey netted a marker of his own just over a minute later with an assist Colin Minicus '20 after David White '18 forced a turnover at midfield.  Junior Spud Dunn (McLean, Va.) tallied the first Bantam score of the matchup with 8:17 on the clock, getting the angle and ripping a shot short-side.  Coffey potted back-to-back goals for the Mammoths in a 19-second span, but Trinity sophomore Ben Ferrucci (Essex, Conn.) connected with rookie attacker Drew Kozub (Hopkinton, Mass.) to make the score, 4-2.  Amherst quickly countered with goals by Minicus and Max Keeley in the final minute of the first quarter to set the score at 6-2.

Capitalizing on a Mammoth penalty, the Bantams needed only seven seconds to get on the board in the second period as sophomore middie Andrew Collins (Brookfield, Conn.) drove a bounce shot into the nylon to log the player-up score before beating the Amherst netminder once again at the 8:48 mark on a dish from Kozub to bring the visitors back within two.  Potting what stood as the Mammoths final goal of the first half, Ian Kadish snuck a shot from the right side just inside the near post, while Trinity senior tri-captain Ryan Tassan (Cold Spring Harbor, N.Y.) capped off the stanza by powering a shot from 60 yards downfield into an empty net at the 1:50 mark.

Minicus opened scoring in the third stanza with an unassisted tally with 13:56 on the clock, before a run by Trinity that featured goals by junior Ted Myers (Washington, D.C.), Kozub and Collins deadlocked the contest at 8-8.  Trading the next two markers, Coffey notched a score for the Mammoths with an assist from Minicus and Dunn converted on a pass from Myers to make it 9-9 before Amherst posted four unanswered markers to take a 13-9 lead with 15 minutes remaining in regulation.  Matt Solberg  kicked off the run by drilling a shot into the top left corner at the 5:10 mark of the third, Kadish extended the Amherst lead to five at the 12:19 mark in the fourth quarter before junior attackman Troy Hanlon (New Vernon,. N.J.) put an end to the 10:53 Bantam scoring drought with 9:52 left to play.  Amherst outscored the Bantams, 5-1, late with Collins tallying the final Trinity score.

Trinity senior tri-captain Woody Hamilton (Williamstown, Mass.) racked up 14 saves and added two ground balls and two caused turnovers in his final collegiate gamefor Trinity.  Chad Simons registered 19 stops in goal for Amherst.  The Mammoths owned a 37-28 advantage in ground balls, and Dylan Finazzo went 19-for-25 to lead Amherst's 21-for-33 effort at the faceoff dot.  Collins finished with four goals, while junior Alex Notman scooped a team-high four ground balls for the Bantams.