CASTINE, Maine – Maine Maritime Academy men's lacrosse fell to New England College 17-1 on Saturday afternoon in North Atlantic Conference (NAC) action at Ritchie Field. 

With the loss the Mariners fall to 0-3 overall and 0-1 in the conference, while the Pilgrims improve to 3-4 on the season and 1-0 in the NAC. Maine Maritime returns to action on Monday night when they host Saint Joseph's College of Maine at 7:00 pm.

The Pilgrims struck first with nine minutes to go in the first quarter, when Matt Rickard connected with Reilly Parker to make it 1-0. Richard found teammate Connor Fries with just under two minutes to go in the quarter, to double the Pilgrims' advantage to 2-0, but the Mariners fought back late in the quarter on a man-down strike from Sawyer Watson (Topsham, Maine) to close the gap to 2-1 entering the second quarter.

New England College scored eight unanswered goals in the second quarter to take a 10-1 lead into halftime and never looked back.

Watson led the Mariners with a goal, while Max Barton (Yarmouth, Maine) caused a team-high four turnovers, and Isaiah Weston (Mt. Vernon, Maine) and William Evon (Barrington, Ill) each scooped up five ground balls.

Parker led the Pilgrims with five goals, while Richard added six assists and four goals and Charles Hacking chipped in with a hat-trick. Austin Frankel led all players with 10 ground balls, going 13-of-15 on the face off. Fries led the Pilgrims with two caused turnovers. 

Weston tallied 16 saves in the loss for the Mariners, while NEC's William Platt collected three saves in the victory.