WALTHAM, Mass. – In its season opening game Bentley gave a strong effort against No. 8 NYIT, but the Bears pulled away in the 4^th quarter to take an 8-3 victory over the Falcons on Saturday afternoon.

Bentley got the game's opening goal from freshman Alex Astarita (Bedford, N.H./Bishop Guertin) at the 7:28 mark. They kept the Bears off the scoreboard until the final seconds, when NYIT finally scored courtesy of attacker Vincent Ferraro with 23 seconds left in the quarter.

Bentley then scored the first goal of the second quarter, coming off the stick of midfielder Matt Brigham (Portsmouth, R.I./Portsmouth Abbey) at the 11:52 mark to give his team a 2-1 lead. NYIT though took advantage of the next two penalties and scored man-up goals at 9:50 and 1:59, before adding an even-strength goal just before halftime to lead 4-2 heading into the locker rooms.

The Bears got the only goal of the 3^rd quarter from senior Shawn Murphy at the 7:17 mark, though Bentley had two, 30 second man-up opportunities.

With the Bears defense keeping Bentley off the scoreboard, they began to pull away in the 4^th quarter with goals at the 8:17 and 5:08 marks to take a 7-2 lead. Sophomore attacker Matt Sanford (Stratham, N.H./Bow) scored for Bentley with 1:41 to play.

Senior goalie Daniel Shaughnessy (Sudbury, Mass./Lincoln-Sudbury) made 12 saves for the Falcons in goal.

Bentley's next game is set for March 15 at Catawba.