North Andover, Mass.- Binghamton men's lacrosse (5-2, 1-0 AE) defeated Merrimack (4-3, 0-1 AE) 14-7 to begin America East play. The Bearcats jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the first period. With back to back goals by freshman Will Feldmann and sophomore Gage Adams. Junior Ethan Insinga scored a goal and sophomore Matthew Keegan scored back to back goals to close out the period. Keegan would finish the contest with four goals, Adams and Insinga each finished with a hat trick. Redshirt junior Thomas Greenblatt recorded four assists in the first period.

"I thought our offense did a great job of sharing the ball today," head coach Kevin McKeown said. "Thomas did a great job of finding guys open off-ball."

BU went on to score five more goals in the second period, using a four goal run to take a 10-4 lead into the half. Goalie Connor Winters scored his first career goal from nearly three fourths the length of the field during the run. 

In the second half, both teams would score twice in the third period and BU would hold Merrimack to just one goal in the final period. Defensively, the BU defense allowed a season low seven goals, with Winters finishing with a season high 13 saves and a .650 save percentage.

"I thought our defense played very well in six on six situations," said McKeown. "We handled our matchups well and gave Connor shots that were saveable."

At the faceoff, senior Matthew DeSouza won 10-13 faceoffs and three groundballs. DeSouza and Binghamton still sit atop the America East rankings in faceoff win percentage, winning at 60 percent clip. 

The Bearcats will be back in action on Saturday, Mar. 25 against NJIT. The action will begin at 1 p.m.