UNION, N.J. (4/10/15) – The Kean University men's lacrosse team had 64 shots and scooped 50 ground balls in its 17-7 Skyline Conference victory over the College of Mount Saint Vincent on Friday night. Matt Speciale scored five times for the Cougars and Anthony Carpenter also had a hat trick with seven points.

Kean won 18-of-24 faceoffs on the night, helping to pad its season-high groundball total. Mike Criscitello (9-13), Ed Adams (6-7) and Jamar Thigpen (3-4) all had good games at the draw. Adams led the team with seven ground balls. Anthony Perrotta (pictured left) had five groundballs, scored a goal and also forced a team-high two turnovers.

Carpenter was busy in the first quarter. He set up both Kean goals (scored by Eric Talbot and Speciale). He also had three shots on goal and a groundball in the first 15.

The Cougars scored the first four goals of the second quarter to take a commanding 6-1 lead. Speciale had the first two, cementing his second-straight hat trick and third of the season. Tom Kelly and Carpenter had the others.

Mount Saint Vincent closed the gap with two late second quarter goals, but Jeff Christiano snuck in a shot just ahead of the halftime horn to steal the momentum back and give the Cougars a 7-3 lead at the break. Kean was dominating the shot count 33-13 and had won 9-of-10 faceoffs. 

But the Dolphins scored the first three goals of the second half to get all the way to within one on Germain Ngaba's second goal of the night at 10:22.

One minute later, Carpenter had a huge goal to stop bleeding. That tally sparked a nine-goal run by the home team that finally put the pesky Dolphins away.

Maxwell Fields earned the win in goal with eight saves and 40 different Cougars saw action in the contest. Also scoring in the game were Mike Singer, Matt Brodley, Elden Andrews and Neil Bortolus. Josh James and Ngaba scored two apiece for the Dolphins.

Kean improved to 8-5 on the year and 3-0 in the Skyline Conference. Mount Saint Vincent is still looking for its first win at 0-9 and 0-3 in the league.

The Cougars will remain home and host Skyline Conference rival Stockton University on Wednesday at 7 p.m. inside Kean Alumni Stadium.