WALTHAM, Mass. – Junior Brendan Grant (Walpole, Mass./Xaverian Brothers) scored five goals as Bentley University pulled away in the second half for the second straight game, defeating American International 15-7 in Northeast-10 men's lacrosse Saturday afternoon.

Bentley outshot the Yellow Jackets 60-23, won the ground ball battle 42-22 and took 20 of 25 face-offs, but was locked in a tight battle for the first half. Senior Troy Neville (Duxbury, Mass./Duxbury) won all of those face-offs and picked up 15 ground balls.

AIC led 3-2 after the first quarter on the strength of two goals by Nick Amendt, and would have led 5-4 going into halftime if not for a buzzer-beating goal by Grant. After AIC turned the ball over in its offensive zone, Bentley executed a successful clear, and junior Richard Travers (Longmeadow, Mass./Longmeadow) fed a pass from midfield to Grant stationed right in front of the net, who turned and fired and beat AIC goalie Eric Whettell right before the clock expired.

Grant and Travers were responsible for the other two goals scored by Bentley in the second quarter, as Travers' goal 33 seconds in tied the score at three and Grant netted his first of the game at the 9:28 mark to give the Falcons a 4-3 lead.

Grant's goal right before halftime swung the momentum Bentley's way as they dominated the second half, outscoring AIC 10-2. They scored four unanswered goals in the third period, Grant scored twice, before AIC's Dan MacIssac got one back for the visitors, making it just a 9-6 game going to the fourth quarter.

But Bentley quickly squashed any hopes of an AIC upset with four goals in the first six plus minutes of the quarter and six unanswered overall. Freshman Nick Astarita (Bishop, N.H./Bishop Guertin) had two goals during the run and Grant capped his day with a man-down goal.

The Falcons improve to 5-4 overall and have won five straight in the NE-10 to go to 5-1. AIC is now 1-10 and 1-6. Bentley begins a crucial week on Tuesday night when they visit Merrimack at 7:00 p.m. They play at Le Moyne Saturday afternoon.

Box Score

At Waltham, Mass.

AIC (1-10, 1-6 NE-10)                      3   2   1   1   --    7

Bentley (5-4, 5-1 NE-10)                  2   3   4   6   --   15

Scoring: B, Brendan Grant 5, Richard Travers 2, Nick Astarita 2, Zach Paz 2, J.D. Ayer 1, Dan Keefer 1, Steve Caditz 1, Steve Taylor 1; A, Nick Amendt 2, Aaron McNab 1, Dan MacIssac 1, Nick Abraham 1, Alex Casparius 1, Mike Desire 1

Assists: B, Travers 2, Matt Boilard 1, Ayer 1, Keefer 1, Tim Matheson 1; A, McNab 2, Amendt 1

Shots: B, 60; A, 23

Saves: B, Mike O'Neil 9; A, Eric Whettell 16

Ground Balls: B, 42; A, 22

Face-offs: B, 20-25; A, 5-25

Extra-man Opps: B, 0-3; A, 1-4