SMITHFIELD, R.I. – With a goal and an assist on the evening, Bryant University men's lacrosse senior captain Bryan Kaufmann (Putnam Valley, N.Y.) notched his 200th career point as the Bulldogs secured their eighth victory of the year, 14-8 over Presbyterian College Friday night at the Bryant Turf Complex, guaranteeing their most sought-after team goal: a winning season in their inaugural Division I campaign.

"I'm so thrilled we got this win and that's finally behind us," said Bryant head coach Mike Pressler. "We didn't do it in a pretty fashion – it was not our best stuff to say the least – but we'll certainly take it."

Graduate student and first-line attackman Zack Greer (Whitby, Ont.) led the Bulldogs (8-5) with five goals and a pair of assists, while linemate Kevin Hoagland (Glastonbury, Conn.) had a big day of his own with a hat trick and two helpers. Bryant got goals from six different scorers as Kaufmann's two points on the evening put him among just two other four-year Bryant lacrosse alums with 200 or more career points.

"I'm certainly happy that Bryan got his 200th point, but this was certainly not his best effort," said Pressler.

And despite the win, at times, the play wasn't as pretty as Bryant is used to.

In the first quarter, the Bulldogs sat back and watched as Presbyterian (1-10) took a 2-0 edge on goals from Cory Stemshorn and Andrew Athens, who would lead the Blue Hose with six of their eight tallies on the night.

But with 4:45 to play in the opening frame, sophomore Matt Larson (Cheshire, Conn.) sent a pass into the crease from the right side for Greer, who nailed home a low one-timer to get the Bulldogs on the board, 2-1.

Clay Patchen made the score 3-1 in the visitors' favor 44 seconds later before a man-up goal by Gary Crowley (Scituate, Mass.) and an even-strength tally from Hoagland (from Greer) within a minute of each other knotted the score at 3-3.

The Bulldogs didn't see their first lead of the night until the 13:57 mark of the first session, when Bryant Amitrano (Valley Stream, N.Y.) bounced in a goal from the right side with 63 ticks left on the clock.

Back-to-back unassisted goals by Athens gave the Blue Hose back the one-goal advantage, 5-4, less than six minutes into the second quarter, but a soft and low finesse shot from Crowley saw the home side get even again at 5-5.

Hoagland netted his second of the night 1:29 later to finish off all first-half scoring just seconds after a Presbyterian penalty released to take a 6-5 edge into the locker room at the half.

"We hoped we would get a lead, but it's 6-5 at half – this is anybody's game," Pressler said. "We were in a battle and we knew it. Presbyterian played hard, but we certainly helped them I think.

"We need to understand that we have to, regardless of our opponent, be mature enough to go out there and have the goods to play well, and I didn't think we had that from the first whistle to the last today," he continued. "And give Presbyterian credit. They played well in the first half for sure, but we weren't as prepared as I hoped we would be for game No 13. After a 10-day layoff, I just thought we would be more ready to go and obviously that wasn't the case."

And in the locker room between halves, the tone was quite different than ever before.

"I left it up to them," Pressler explained. "We talked about the first five minutes of the third quarter, I said very little and walked out the door and put it on them to respond.

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2009-04-11