Pleasantville, N.Y. – No. 4 seed Pace received five goals each from attackers Daniel Keenan and Connor Vercruysse in a 16-10 victory over No. 5 seed Bentley in the first round of the NE10 Men's Lacrosse Championship on Saturday night.

Bentley scored the first goal of the game off the stick of junior Matt Brooks (Brunswick, Maine/Phillips Exeter), and also received two goals from senior Sam Hurley (Medfield, Mass./Medfield), including a man-up goal at 8:31.Vercruysse though had two goals for the Setters to help them lead 5-3 after the first 15 minutes.

Bentley was held to just one goal in the second quarter, from senior Alex Astarita (Bedford, N.H./Bishop Guertin). Their other four shots on goal were saved by Setters goalie Louis Ragusa. Keenan meanwhile scored all three of their goals in the quarter as they led 8-4 at halftime.

Astarita scored the first goal of the 3^rd quarter at 13:22, but Pace responded with two straight to take a 10-5 lead at 11:25. The teams then alternated goals over the rest of the quarter. Bentley's goals came from Astarita at 9:56 and defenseman Jack Taddeo (Penfield, N.Y./Penfield) at 8:25. Pace led 12-7 going into the final quarter.

To start the fourth quarter Bentley again scored first, this time a man-up goal by Brooks 32 seconds in. After a Pace goal by Wyatt Barfoot, Brooks netted his third goal of the night at 9:51 to make it a 13-9 game. But Pace then went on a 3-0 run to open up a 16-9 lead with just over four minutes remaining.

Bentley's Kris Campbell (Longmeadow, Mass./Longmeadow) scored the final goal of the game with 1:18 remaining.

Falcons goalie Mike Haggan (Braintree, Mass./BC High) made 16 saves against 32 shots faced. Astarita and Brooks each had three goals to lead the offense. Taddeo had a team high three ground balls.

Bentley's season comes to an end with a 9-5 record. Pace advances on to the semifinals where they will take on the top seed Adelphi.