SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Five goals and three assists from James Olsen powered the Saint Anselm College men's lacrosse team to a 25-11 road win over American International in the team's Northeast-10 Conference opener on Saturday at Abdow Field.

Box Score

Olsen had three goals and an assist in the first quarter alone to help Saint Anselm (3-0, 1-0 NE-10) jump out to a 7-0 lead over AIC (0-7, 0-4 NE-10) after 15 minutes. The junior added a goal and an assist in each of the second and third periods and now has 18 points through three games this season. His eight points in the game were a career-high total for Olsen.

In addition to Olsen's big game, Ben Warren, Todd Billetter and Alex Pacitti each had two goals and two assists. Xavier Quinn added three goals and an assist and Ryan Hesseltine chipped in with a hat trick. In total, 12 players had multi-point games for Saint Anselm in the contest.

The seven-goal first period was part of a 13-0 start to the game for the Hawks over the first 20 minutes. The Yellow Jackets scored five of the next six goals to trail 14-5 late in the first half but that was as close as the hosts would get the rest of the way.

After leading 15-6 at the half, Saint Anselm held AIC to just one goal in the third and tacked on six of its own to go up 21-7 after three. Quinn scored two of his three goals in the fourth quarter.

Saint Anselm held a 52-32 advantage in shots on goal, including 45-20 over the first three periods. Lucas DeAngelo stopped eight of 17 shots in 53:55 to improve to 3-0 and PJ Kendall made three saves in 6:05 at the tail end of the game. Tariq Wureshi made 10 saves in the loss for AIC.

Quinn Cesar scored a hat trick for AIC and Jack McIntyre added two goals and two assists for the hosts. Kevin Papineau matched McIntyre's four points with a goal and three helpers.

Saint Anselm grabbed 22 ground balls to 20 for AIC, led by five ground balls from Derrick LaBranche. The Hawks held the Yellow Jackets to just 1-for-6 with an extra man.

Saint Anselm takes on Saint Rose on the road on Saturday, March 26 at 1 p.m.

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