HENNIKER, N.H. – A six-goal outburst in the fourth quarter propelled the Vermont State University Castleton men's lacrosse team to a 12-10 come-from-behind victory on Wednesday night against New England College.
 
The Spartans earned their first win of the season in the thrilling comeback, moving the team's record to 1-1 overall. It was the season-opener for the Pilgrims, who are now 0-1 on the year. The Spartans had a 40-30 edge in shots, an 18-16 edge in shots on goal and a 22-18 edge in ground balls. Both sides committed equal turnovers and both were efficient clearing the ball with the Spartans going 17-of-19 on the clear.
 
Carter Frankenhoff led the offense for the second game in a row, tallying a pair of goals and dishing out three assists. Ian Edgar notched a pair of scores for the second game in a row and Jordan Damske, Ethan Esposito and Cam Frankenhoff had two goals apiece as well. Casey Meczywor and Hunter Sarro also contributed in the goal column and Asa Forbes had an assist. Forbes also had a team-high four ground balls Hollis Jones went 13-of-24 on face-offs. Zac Smith earned the win in goal with 43-plus minutes of action and six saves to three goals against.
 
Henri Pfeifle had a big day for NEC, scoring six times with an assist for seven points. Joey Olsen had five points on a goal and four assists. Thomas Doe had a game-high six ground balls and Jackson Kain caused six turnovers. Nate Finn suffered the loss, making six saves and allowing all 12 goals.
 
The Pilgrims dominated the first quarter, scoring the first five goals of the night before Damske put the Spartans in the score column. NEC tacked on one more before the end of the frame, leading 6-1 after 15 minutes. VTSU Castleton buckled down from there, however, limiting the Pilgrims to only one second-quarter goal. Trailing 7-1 late in the half, Edgar scored on a man-up chance to make it 7-2 at halftime.
 
The Spartans regrouped at halftime and came out ready to play, rattling off four straight goals in 11 minutes to make it a one-score game. Meczywor got the party started with a man-up goal of his own, followed by goals from Esposito, Edgar and Carter Frankenhoff to set the score at 7-6 Pilgrims. NEC answered with one goal before the end of the third, making it an 8-6 game going into the final 15 minutes.
 
The lead grew to 9-6 in the early moments of the fourth, but Damske and Cam Frankenhoff rattled off back-to-back goals just a few minutes apart to make it 9-8. Trailing 10-8 with less than six minutes to play, the Spartans flipped the field and controlled the pace the rest of the way. Sarro found the back of the cage to make it 10-9 before Esposito netted his second of the game to tie the score at 10-10. Carter Frankenhoff scored the go-ahead goal with 2:18 to play and brother Cam scored on an assist from Carter with 1:05 to play to give the Spartans some breathing room. The Pilgrims made one more push, but Smith tallied a late save to keep the lead at two and seal the Spartans' first victory under head coach Ed Stephenson.
 
Castleton is back in action on Saturday, taking the field at Dave Wolk Stadium for the first time this season at 1 p.m. against Utica.