Wolves Cruise to 29-7 Victory Over Salem State

SALEM, Mass. – Julian Duque (Mastic, N.Y.) scored five goals and added three assists while Benjamin Hawthorne (Manorville, N.Y.) netted four goals and recorded four assists as Western Connecticut cruised to a 29-7 victory in the Little East finale for Salem State on "Senior Night" at Alumni Field. The Wolves improve to 13-3 and 6-2 in the Little East. The Vikings end their 2022 campaign 6-10 and 0-8 in the LEC.

Salem State honored seniors  Drew Worthley (Saugus, Mass.), Kevin Albert (Canton, Mass.) and Zach Royal (Abington, Mass.), who were playing their final game, in a pre-game ceremony.

Trey Aronow (Holbrook, N.Y.) – 3 goals, 3 assists, Ryan Baudo (Seaford, N.Y.) – 2 goals, Aidan Mulligan (Mount Sinai, N.Y.) – 2 goals, Stephen Cicchetti (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) – 2 goals, Jac Cutillo (Kings Park, N.Y.) -1 goal, Nate Caldwell (Crandord, N.J.) -1 goal, Sean Mitchell (South Setauket, N.Y.) – 1 goal, Kyle Cuccio (Massapequa Park, N.Y.) – 1 goal, Jack Murphy (Putnam Valley, N.Y.) – 1 goal, Ryan Baci (Merrick, N.Y.) – 1 goal, Kai Bruneau (West Haven, Conn.) – 1 goal, Connor Harris (West Islip, N.Y.) – goal, Ryan Hirt (West Islip, N.Y.) -1 goal, 1 assist, Joseph Boss (Holbrook, N.Y.) – 1 goal, Travis Benson (Kings Park, N.Y.) – 1 goal all scored for Western Connecticut.

Sam Cioffi (Marblehead, Mass.) netted three scores, ending the year with the Viking's season-record of 55 goals. Drew Worthley (Saugus, Mass.) had two scores for Salem State. Lake Fleming (Gloucester, Mass.) had a goal and assist while Patrick Guinee (Gloucester, Mass.) – 1 goal scored his team-leading and Salem State single-season record 74^th point.

The Wolves jumped out to a 7-0 first quarter lead. Hawthorne had two goals in the period. The lead grew to 9-0 in the second before Cioffi answered for Salem State at the 12:15 mark. The two teams traded goals before Western Connecticut scored five unanswered goals, including a pair by Duque to increase their lead to 15-2. Worthley got one back for the Vikings before Hawthorne scored his fourth goal of the half, giving Western Connecticut a 16-3 advantage at the half.

The Wolves outscored Salem State 5-3 in the third to exit the quarter with a 21-5 lead as five different Western Connecticut players found the back of the net. Murphy capped a 6-0 Wolves run with a score at the 8:48 mark of the fourth, building the margin to 20 goals (20-5). Guinee and Cioffi netted back-to-back scores for the Vikings before Western Connecticut capped the scoring with three goals in the final three minutes, making the final 29-7.

Brendan Grove (Cheshire, Conn.) started in goal for the Wolves and made nine saves in the first half. Seth Hurt (Griswold, Conn.), Justin Tarsi (Danbury, Conn.), Jason Friia (Port Jefferson Station, N.Y.) and George Suzuki (Kirkland, Wash.) all shared time in net for Western Connecticut, combining for 12 saves and four goals allowed. Zach Royal (Abington, Mass.) made 21 stops for the Vikings in net. The Wolves held a 68-35 margin in shots in the game.