Hamilton College took an 8-7 lead into halftime but nationally ranked No. 19 Nazareth College outscored the Continentals 9-3 in the second half en route to a 16-11 non-conference win for the Golden Flyers on their frozen artificial turf field Wednesday afternoon.
Box Score
Sam Sweet ’16 scored a career-best six goals for the Continentals (0-2 overall) and John Zimmerman ’15 contributed a personal-high six assists.
Sweet and Bryan Hopper ’14 scored a pair of first-quarter goals as the Continentals jumped out to a 4-1 lead 8:48 into the game. The Golden Flyers (1-1) closed the period with three straight goals to tie the score. The teams traded goals through the second quarter until Sweet’s fifth goal of the day put Hamilton up 8-7 with 22 seconds left in the half.
Goals by Luke Wooters ’14 and Drew Simoneau ’15 just 12 seconds apart in the opening minute of the third quarter gave Nazareth the lead for good. Trevar Haefele ’14 and Chris Aycock ’14 scored a pair of goals as the Golden Flyers pushed their advantage to 13-9. Hamilton closed to within 13-10 on a goal by Connor Morgan ’15 with 2:26 remaining in the third but Nazareth sealed the win with three straight goals to open the fourth.
Morgan’s two goals raised his season total to eight. J.D. Brachman ’17 closed out the scoring with 37 seconds left, notching his second goal of the year for the Continentals. Chad Berger ’14 led Hamilton with seven ground balls and three caused turnovers and Trip Connors ’17 picked up four ground balls. Will Driscoll ’15 stopped 15 shots.
Wooters led 11 Golden Flyers in the scoring column with three goals. Troy Haefele ’16 finished with four assists and two goals and Trevar Haefele contributed two goals and three assists. Aycock and Simoneau added two goals apiece. Mark Pinski ’14, Troy Haeffle and Wooters each caused three turnovers. Drew Simoneau ’15 led all players with 15 ground balls and won 22 of 29 faceoffs for Nazareth. Scott Brown ’16 made eight saves to earn his first win this season.
The Continentals return to NESCAC play at Colby College on Saturday, March 8, at 1 p.m.
