WALTHAM, Mass. – Bentley got its Northeast-10 schedule underway on Saturday at home against Franklin Pierce and came away with an 11-8 victory. John Wheeler (Scarborough, Maine/Scarborough) and Alex Astarita (Bedford, N.H./Bishop Guertin) paced the offense with three goals each.

The Falcons led 10-5 early in the 4^th quarter after a goal by Astarita, but Franklin Pierce chipped away down the stretch with a 3-0 run, that culminated in a goal by Sean Delea at the 5:52 mark to make it a 10-8 game.

However, Astarita scored a big man-up goal with 1:17 remaining to seal the victory.

A tight first half resulted in a 4-3 Bentley lead at halftime. But the Falcons exploded out of the locker rooms in the 3^rd quarter by scoring four unanswered goals in the first six-plus minutes. Wheeler had a man-up goal at the 8:08 mark to give his team a 7-3 lead. Bentley then won the ensuing face-off and the ground ball was picked up by Derek Osbahr (Nahant, Mass./St. John's Prep), who raced down the field and scored unassisted just 14 seconds after Wheeler's goal.

Osbahr opened the 2^nd half scoring with another impressive play after causing a turnover in the Franklin Pierce end, picking up the ground ball and scoring after racing down the field.

The scoring in the first half came from Astarita with two goals, Wheeler and sophomore Chris Wiggins (Acton, Mass./Acton-Boxborough).

The win improves Bentley's record to 2-1 (1-0 NE-10). They'll go for a 3^rd straight win next Saturday at home against Assumption.