NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University and Castleton State College men's lacrosse teams would battle a tight first half before Castleton State piled on six goals in the second stanza to clinch the 8-4 victory Thursday night at Sabine Field.

Freshman Ian Kennedy (Gloucester, Mass.) scored twice with junior Jimmy Warden (North Andover, Mass.) and senior Andrew Bracy (Carthage, N.Y.) each recording a goal for the Cadets. Castleton was led by juniors Taylor Swarter (Avondale, Pa.) and Zach Devoid (St. Alban's, Vt.) scoring a pair of goals each with four different players recording one goal on the night.

After a back-and-forth battle at the start of the faceoff, Castleton would get on the board late in the first period with senior attackman Zach Davidson (South Burlington, Vt.) driving around the crease before scoring unassisted. Norwich would put up seven shots in the period before Kennedy drilled the shot into the net on a pass from freshman Jared Thompson (Linthicum, Md.) with 13 second remaining for the 1-1 score.

Both teams continued to pressure each other on both ends of the field with both teams pulling off six shots in the second period. Castleton had several opportunites in front of the cage but were denied at point blank by senior goalkeeper Ryan Fecteau (Danvers, Mass.), who came up with six saves in the half. It wasn't long before the Spartans struck again when senior long pole Alex Denny (Adams Center, N.Y.) caused a Norwich turnover, scooped up the ball and ran down the field before pulling the trigger that found the back of the net to put the Spartans ahead 2-1 with 5:42 remaining in the half. Norwich would pile on three additional shots but none of them would snag the net as time expired.

Norwich (5-4, 3-2 GNAC) would start the second half with hunger, looking to get ahead as freshman Michael Cashman (East Kingston, N.H.) found Warden open at the top left of the box as he made the shot that slugged past Castleton's netminder, Sam Polas (Hartford, Vt.), and into the top right corner for the 2-2 score.

Castleton (5-4, 3-0 NAC) would score four straight goals in the next nine minutes, including an extra-man opportunity as the Spartans extended the lead to 6-2 after three periods. The Cadets took advantage of a man-up opportunity themselves and converted a goal from Kennedy before Castleton scored less than a minute later with 5:44 remaining in the game.

Already serving a penalty, Norwich would recorded their fourth and final goal of the game in just nine seconds after Bracy would win the next faceoff, sped down the field before making the shot that bounced past Polas for the 7-4 score. Castleton would score once more from Devoid to clinch the 8-4 victory.

Fecteau would end the night with 12 saves on 20 shots for Norwich, while Polas came up with seven saves on 11 shots faced in between the pipes for Castleton.

Bracy would end the night winning 12 of the 15 faceoffs with Graeme Pike (Wallingford, Conn.) winning three for the Spartans. Norwich would record 45 ground balls to Castleton's 29 and outshoot the Spartans 37-28. Both teams would record just one man-up goals on multiple chances and come up with nine caused turnovers with Ryan Dart (Greenfield, Minn.) and Zach Alder (Stratham, N.H.) recording two for Norwich and Denny leading Castleton with two.

Prior to the game, both teams took a moment of silence to remember one of their own, Connor Roberts, who had just finished his sophomore year at Norwich when he passed away unexpectedly.  Roberts' older brother, Ben, played lacrosse and hockey at Castleton before graduating in 2014, while his sister Danielle was a member of the women's hockey team at Castleton.  Together, both teams teamed up and started the Climb for Connor fundraising and raised over $10,000 towards the Connor Roberts Memorial Fund, which a check was given to the Roberts family in attendance at tonight's game.

Norwich will take the remainder of the week off before returning to action next Wednesday, April 8 as the Cadets host Lasell College in Great Northeast Athletic Conference play for the 7:00 p.m. faceoff.