NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University men's lacrosse team saw its second-half rally come up just short as the Cadets fell 10-7 to visiting New England College Thursday afternoon. The Cadets fall to 1-6 on the year, while New England College improves to 4-5 overall.

The Cadets trailed 10-3 after the Pilgrim's Amani Mwingira (Plymouth, N.Y.) scored at the 9:33 mark of the third quarter.

Freshman Dylan Avery (South Burlington, Vt.) started the Norwich push, scoring unassisted with 1:30 to play in the third. The Cadets continued its hot shooting in the fourth quarter , scoring three straight with goals from seniors Ryan McCarthy (Medford, Mass.), Jimmy Warden (North Andover, Mass.) and sophomore Josh Jenkins (Centennial, Colo.) to pull within 10-7 with 3:17 remaining in the quarter.

Norwich looked to even up the score with barrages of shots against New England College's netminder, freshman William Platt (San Francisco, Calif.)  but the Pilgrims managed to grab ahold of the ball and drained time off the clock for the win.

The Pilgrims opened the contest with two straight goals by sophomore Matt Richard (Weare, N.H.) and senior Skyler Saunders (Cambridge, N.Y.) before freshman Cody Moore (Canton, N.Y.) got the Cadets on the board at the 6:40 mark of the first quarter.

New England would score six straight with two goals from Richard and junior Sean Largay (Norwalk, Conn.) with Saunders drilling in a goal in between to make it 8-2, Pilgrims at the half.

Richard, Saunders and Largay each recorded a hat trick for the Pilgrims with freshman long pole Connor Fries (Barnstable, Mass.) forcing three turnovers and four ground balls as Platt came up with 11 saves on 18 shots for his fourth win of the season.

McCarthy would led the Cadets with three points on two goals and a helper, while four different players notched a goal on the day. Faceoff specialist Jack Dwyer (Shelburne, Vt.) won 16 of the 21 attempts on the face  as Warden picked up a team-high seven ground balls and junior long pole James Connors (Marshfield, Mass.) forcing three caused turnovers on defense. Freshman Ian Kriger (Burlington, Mass.) recorded nine saves on 19 shots in between the pipes for Norwich.

While the Cadets outdueled the Pilgrims on shots, 38-28, and on the ground, 39-34, Norwich were plagued by their own mistakes, giving up 26 turnovers to New England's 22.

Norwich is back in action on Saturday when it opens Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) play against Albertus Magnus College on the road in New Haven, Conn. Game time is set for 2:30 p.m.