The #6 Middlebury men's lacrosse team scored four goals in the first 6:02 of Saturday's contest against #14 Amherst and never looked back during a 17-11 triumph.
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• The Panthers raced out to a quick 1-0 lead when Patrick Jamin ripped a shot from 15 yards out that tucked into the right side of the goal with 1:21 elapsed.
• Cooper DeMallie made it a 2-0 contest 1:15 later with a nifty lefty crease roll, while goals by Russell Thorndike and William Ryan pushed the Middlebury edge to four (4-0) with 8:58 left in the first quarter.
• The Mammoths got on the scoreboard 37 seconds later when Brendan Reilly scooped up a ground ball and fired a shot over the shoulder of Panther goalie Hayden Kern.
• Ryan found the back of the net again with 7:44 left in the stanza on a pass from behind the goal from Billy Curtis for a 5-1 advantage.
• Middlebury tallied four of the initial five goals of the second stanza, taking a 9-2 edge on a dodge from the left by DeMallie with 1:55 before the half.
• Reilly tucked in his second goal of the frame 25 seconds later for a 9-3 Panther halftime edge.
• Thorndike completed his hat trick with 3:33 elapsed in the third quarter on a quick-stick chance to give the hosts a 10-3 lead.
• Amherst answered with a player-up goal from Alex Giacobbe and a tally by Jake Bennett to pull to within five (10-5).
• The Panthers responded with the next three goals, including a score from Will Zink after a nifty pass from Jamin, for a 13-5 lead with 12:32 left.
• The teams traded three-goal spurts over the next eight minutes, highlighted by Thorndike's fourth marker of the contest on a stick-to-stick pass from Tom Conley for a 17-9 edge.
• A tally by Amherst's Jake Bennett and a player-up score from Bob Gross provided the final 17-11 result.

NOTES

• Kern finished with 13 saves in front of the Panther goal, marking the 12th time in 22 career games he has posted a double-digit save total.
• Thorndike led a balanced offensive output with five points (4G, 1A), as 11 different Panthers tallied a point. Thorndike's five points give him 100 for his career.
• Ryan finished with a trio of goals and posted a career-best five ground balls.
• The programs met for the 71st time with Middlebury holding a 44-26-1 advantage in the all-time series.

The Panthers return to action on Wednesday when they host #8 Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) at 3:00 p.m.