NORTHFIELD, Vt. – Castleton led just 2-1 at the half but outscored Norwich 4-1 in the third quarter on the way to an 8-4 victory on Thursday evening at Sabine Field. 

The Spartans won their fourth game in a row and improved to 5-4 despite being outshot 37-28, though they put 20 of their 28 shots on goal as opposed to the Cadets' 11 shots. Norwich drops to 5-4 with the loss, despite winning 12 faceoffs and picking up 16 more ground balls. 

Senior Sam Polas was strong in net, making seven saves and picking up seven ground balls while allowing just four goals to earn his second win of the year. Zach Davidson led the offense with four points on one goal and three assists while Taylor Swarter added two goals and one assist. With his the three helpers Davidson moved into seventh place on the Division III all-time assist list as he now has 168 career assists. He is also seventh all-time in scoring with 341 points.

Ian Kennedy led the Norwich offense with two goals while Andrew Bracy had nine ground balls and one goal along with 12 faceoff wins. Goalie Ryan Fecteau made 12 saves and picked up six ground balls but took the loss. 

Neither team could get on the board until Davidson slipped between the defense from behind the net for his 16th goal of the year with 4:54 left in the first quarter. Norwich managed to even it up on a Kennedy goal with just 13 seconds left in the period. 

In the second, Alex Denny provided the only goal on a nice individual effort. The long stick midfielder managed to split a pair of defenders from the wing and get in front of the net for his sixth goal of the year with 5:42 remaining in the half. 

Norwich evened up the game at 10:06 of the third on a score by Jimmy Warden. The Spartans responded just 29 seconds last on a goal by freshman Sam Siegel. Swarter gave Castleton a 4-2 lead with 8:20 left in the half off a feed from Davidson and the two connected at 5:18 again on a man-up situation to extend the lead to 5-2. Davidson then found Mike Ruggiero for a goal with 50 seconds remaining. 

The Cadets tried to cut into the Castleton lead in the fourth and eventually trimmed it to 6-3 with 6:19 left on a man-up goal by Kennedy. The Spartans responded just over 30 seconds later as Swarter made a nice feed to Zach Devoid for the goal. Norwich made it a three-goal game, 7-4, on a score by Andrew Bracy with 5:35 left but Devoid ripped a shot on the run at 2:47 to give the Spartans the four-lead for good. 

Castleton returns to action on Saturday when the team hosts Husson in its senior day at 2:30 pm.