Saratoga Springs, N.Y.--Nick Coppola (Basking Ridge, N.J./Ridge) and Matt Levesque (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury) scored five goals each to lead the Skidmore College men's lacrosse team to a 16-6 win in the season-opener for both teams Saturday at Wachenheim Field.

Coppola also had five assists for 10 points on the day, while Levesque added three assists to finish with eight points.

The Thoroughbreds dominated from the start, grabbing a 2-0 lead on first-quarter goals by Alex Giaimo (Manhasset, N.Y./Manhasset) and Matt Levesque. Andrew Packer (Hudson, Ohio) cut the lead to one with Babson's lone goal of the half at 9:42. Then Skidmore put the game away with a nine goal run that extended into the third quarter for an 11-1 lead. Coppola had five of the 11 goals and assisted on one. Matt Levesque scored twice and Tom Howley (Colonia, N.J./Northfield Mount Hermon) and Jeremy Goldman (Port Washington, N.Y./Schreiber) each had solo tallies during the run.

Babson answered the run with third-quarter goals by Bryan Wilbur and Packer to make it 11-4, but the Thoroughbreds ran off five straight to open it up 16-3. The Beavers got three late goals by E.J. Peterson (Framingham, Mass./Framingham) for the 16-6 final.

Skidmore out shot Babson 57-20 and held a 45-35 ground ball advantage.

Flip Bongaerts (Summerland, Calif./New Canaan-Conn.) and Vivek Huded (Haddam, Conn./Loomis Chaffee) combined for eight saves for the Thoroughbreds. Max Owen (Hamilton, N.J./Pennington) had 11 saves in the first half for the Beavers, while Mike Saucier (Nashua, N.H./Bishop Guertin) had four saves in the second half.

2009-02-28