NEW LONDON, Conn. - The Coast Guard men's lacrosse team earned their fourth straight home win topping Maritime (N.Y) 14-8 Wednesday night at Cadet Memorial Field.

With the win the Bears improve to 4-2 on the season while the Privateers fall to 3-3.

Freshman Riley McNulty had a game high five point with three goals and two assists. McNulty is third in the NEWMAC in points (23), tied for third in assists (10) and fifth in goals (13). Sophomore Anthony Wyler had three goals and an assist while classmate Jack Pope had three goals as well. Pope is currently second in the conference with 15 goals on the year. Sophomore Benner Geurtsen notched three points with two goals and an assist while sophomore Cole Hudson added two goals.

Maritime was led by junior Nick Pellegrino who had a team high three goals. Junior T.J. Ragusa ended the game with two assists while freshman Danny Connell had a goal and two assists.

The Bears jumped out to a two goal lead in the first quarter as McNulty sent home his 11th goal of the season at the 4:59 mark making the score 3-1. 

The Privateers answered with just under two minutes to go as Pellegrino scored his 16th of the season followed junior Julius Diaz slotting home a man-up goal with six seconds to go in the period to tie the game at three.

Maritime briefly took the lead at the start of the second quarter as junior Brett Daigle received a pass from Ragusa and fired home his fifth of the season for a 4-3 score with 13:39 to go in the half.

Coast Guard stormed back scoring the final four goals of the period highlighted by a goal by Geurtsen with one second left in the quarter making the half time score 7-4.

The Bears gained one more goal in the the third quarter before they put the game out of reach in the final period outscoring Maritime 5-3 wrapping up the 14-8 victory.

Sophomore Trey Johnson (4-2) made eight saves on 16 shots on goals, allowing eight goals. This is the fourth time this season that Johnson has allowed a single digit goal total. He is third in the conference in saves (50), third in goals against average (7.82) and fifth in save percentage (54.9%).

Junior Brendan McNally (3-2) made 12 saves on 26 shots on goals allowing 14 goals.

Sophomore Colin Cashin was nearly perfect in the face-off circle winning 14-15 with 11 ground balls helping Coast Guard win 21-24 face-offs. Also shining at the FOGO position was senior Dan Fiorvanti who won 6-7.

Cashin continues to move up the national rankings as he is 15th in face-off winning percentage (.691) and 17th in ground balls per game (8.40) as of March 22nd. Cashin also leads the NEWMAC with 53 ground balls on the season.

The Bears defense continues to be aggressive causing nine turnovers as sophomore Tom Bleifuss and Pope each had two caused turnovers. 

Coast Guard is back in action this weekend when they travel to Dallas, Pennsylvania for a nonconference tilt against Misericordia. Opening face is 1:00 pm.