Williams Downs Hamilton 18-5 to Improve to 2-0

Box Score Clinton, N.Y. - The Williams College Ephs started the second half with a 7-3 lead over Hamilton and a powerful offensive outburst in the third quarter led by a single quarter hat trick by senior Cory Lund resulted in a seven-goal run that made the Williams lead insurmountable. The Ephs grabbed their second NESCAC win of the year on the road behind a career-high eight goals from Cory Lund and an unbreakable defense anchored by Harry Gahagan.

With the 18-5 win Williams improved to 2-0/2-0 in NESCAC while Hamilton College is now 0-2 / 0-2 in NESCAC.

Tim Saffold opened up the Eph scoring with 11:36 remaining in the first quarter to put the Ephs up, but that lead only lasted briefly as Quin Crowley fired back for Hamilton a mere seven seconds later to tie the score at one.
 
The quick barrage of goals continued as Cory Lund fed Alex Park to get the Ephs the lead sixteen seconds after Hamilton's goal. A lull in the offense was broken by Harry Gahagan, who connected with Cory Lund for Williams' third goal of the quarter. Tim Saffold and Cory Lund both grabbed their second goals of the game as Williams started to take control, but Hamilton's Britt Defeo pulled one back before the end of the quarter. Williams 5 - Hamilton 2.

The atmosphere of the game shifted from offensive to very defensive in the second quarter. The deadlock was broken at 12:07 by Cory Lund­, who completed his hat trick. Zachary Romrell scored three minutes later after stronger defense from both teams. Hamilton was able to respond quickly thanks to Tim Murray with 8:25 left in the quarter. The last eight minutes of the half were scoreless thanks to an impressive showing from Harry Gahagan who held the defensive structure around him and held down the net by making save after save. Williams took a 7-3 lead into halftime.
 
Cal Ewanich came out of the locker room firing; it took him sixteen seconds to start the Williams scoring. The Williams attack only continued to gain momentum, pushed forward by Ewanich and Lund. The two focal points of the Williams offense connected twice over the next five minutes to put Williams up by seven goals with 9:19 remaining in the quarter. Freshman Pearse Glavin continued the Williams momentum extending the lead to 11 - 3. Cory Lund scored a man-up goal to widen the lead to 12-3 and complete his hat trick for the quarter. Zachary Romrell added another goal before the break to end a Williams-dominated quarter with the score Williams 14 - Hamilton 3.
 
The Williams offense picked up where it left off in the final quarter with Jared Strauss scoring two goals early. Cory Lund added to his goal total by shoveling the ball into the Hamilton net. Hamilton's Jeremy Hazzard put the ball into the top right corner to stop the Williams run of goals. Johnny Oblak kept the momentum with Hamilton scoring another goal moments later with 8:28 left in the fourth. Pearse Glavin connected with Cory Lund to tie Lund's career-high goal total of eight. Hamilton fired shot after shot at Harry Gahagan, but he did not budge in the net to keep Hamilton at just five goals for the day.

Williams used two goalkeepers, Harry Gahagan who made nine saves to go along with a .643 save percentage on the day and sophomore Matt Freitas who kept a perfect 1.000 save percentage thanks to one save. Hamilton also used two goalies: Max Scheidl faced 39 shots and saved 11 for a .397 save percentage and Walt Westhoff, who was not called on to make any saves.
 
Mike Armstrong and Alex Kitt primarily split the faceoff duties for Williams and went even on the day both going 12-24. Quin Crowley spent the most time in the X for Hamilton going 11-21. Williams won the ground balls battle 27 to 19, led again by Brian Greenstein who registered 8. 
 
Speaking to the impressive third-quarter displayed by the Ephs, head coach George McCormack said he and the coaching staff, "Reminded the guys to trust their training and to continue to work together on both the defensive and offensive ends of the field." After an impressive game by a number of underclassmen, he added, "Offensively, I feel that Cal and Pearse have really stepped up as freshmen, and Zach and Alex have done the same as sophomores. Defensively, Sam Cragin and James Hemmer are really stepping it up as freshmen. I was also really impressed by the play of our senior, Michael Armstrong, who stepped in as our face-off guy today."
 
Williams will play next week at Wesleyan in another NESCAC match that will begin at 3:00 pm as they try to build on their undefeated start to the season.