NORTHFIELD, Vt. – The Norwich University men's lacrosse team put together a strong first half to finish out the contest with a 11-5 victory over Saint Joseph's College of Maine in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) action Saturday afternoon at Sabine Field at Haynes Family Stadium.

With the win Norwich improves to 3-1 in the league and 5-7 overall, while Saint Joseph's drops to 2-3 in the GNAC and 5-8 on the year.

Junior Joe Wood (White River Junction, Vt.) led the team with four points on a pair of goals and assists, while sophomore Josh Jenkins (Centennial, Colo.) recorded a hat trick for the Cadets. Sophomore Nick Imbriani (Foxboro, Mass.) chipped in with two goals, as freshman Connor Loughran (Stowe, Vt.), sophomores Alex Bowen (Davidson, N.C.) and Michael Cashman (East Kingston, N.H.) each found the net and senior Matt Flaherty (Portland, Maine) picked two points on a goal and an assist.

Norwich came out with a strong start, scoring five unanswered goals in the first half. Jenkins would put the Cadets on the board early before Wood scored at the 5:04 mark for the 2-0 lead after the first quarter. Wood would open the second quarter with a goal two minutes after the faceoff before Bowen and Jenkins found the back of the net for the 5-0 lead.

Saint Joseph's would find the back of the net as senior Jake O'Brien (Andover, Mass.) drilled the ball into the top right corner of the pipe at the 10 minute mark. The Cadets responded with a goal from Flaherty as he retrieved the pass from Wood before chipping it into the net. The Monks would close out the stanza as sophomore Joe O'Reilly (Suffern, N.Y.) found attackman Michael Finn (Quincy, Mass.) open on the left side as Finn drilled the ball past Norwich's netminder Ian Kriger (Burlington, Mass.). The Cadets looked to produce more goals before time expired but would settle for the 6-2 lead at the half.

Norwich would open the third quarter by scoring back-to-back goals from Imbriani and Loughran to make it 8-2 in the first five minutes. Both teams traded goals before the Monks scored back-to-back, cutting the deficit to four, to end the third quarter. Norwich held the Monks scoreless in the fourth as the Cadets scored twice from Imbriani and Cashman to close out the game with the 11-5 win.

Kriger would finish the day with seven saves on 12 shots for his fifth win of the year before teammate Jake Anderson (Adams, Mass.) jumped in between the pipes in the final 4:13. Saint Joseph's Connor Trainor (Franklin, Mass.) posted 17 saves on 28 shots.

The Cadets outdueled the Monks on the faceoff as sophomore Jack Dwyer (Shelburne, Vt.) won 15 out of the 17 attempts with freshman Jacob Seitz (Fort Meade, Md.) winning 1-of-2. Norwich would win the ground ball battle, 37-24, and outshot the Monks, 48-28, on the day.

Norwich will host Mount Ida College on Wednesday, April 20 for the 4 p.m. GNAC tilt at Sabine Field.