NORTH ANDOVER, MA – The Merrimack men's lacrosse team, ranked fourth in the nation, improved to 5-0 with a 16-4 win over Assumption Saturday in its conference opener at Warrior Field.

The Warriors grabbed a quick 4-1 lead, with Greg Rogowski registering his 18th and 19th goals of the season in the first quarter.

After the Greyhounds cut the lead to 4-2, Merrimack scored the final seven goals of the first half, including two in the final seven seconds from Michael Balbuena to take an 11-2 lead at halftime. Balbuena added two assists in the first half, while Bryan MacPhie scored three times.

The Warriors tacked on five more in the third, making it 12 unanswered goals, two more from Balbuena. Kevin Laplante added his first collegiate tally to make it 16-2 late in the third, as the Warriors emptied their bench in the second half, before surrendering two late Greyhound goals in the final 25 seconds.

Cory Spinale stopped five shots in goal, in just 34:48 of crease time, for his fifth win in as many games. Matt Austin played the remainder of the game, seeing his first collegiate time and stopped one shot. Balbuena finished with four goals and two assists, while Rogowski added six points, giving him 31 in five games. MacPhie scored four times, giving him 10 goals on the season.

Merrimack's defense forced 31 Greyhound turnovers, while the man advantage scored twice in five chances.

Merrimack (5-0, 1-0 NE-10) visits Saint Michael's Tuesday for a 4:00 p.m. game.

2009-03-29