Conor Caffrey and Brian Cunningham each netted a hat trick to lead the St. Lawrence University men's lacrosse team to a 9-3 non-conference win over Middlebury on Tuesday evening at SUNY Canton.

The Saints, who are still receiving votes in the latest USILA Coaches Poll, improved to 3-0 on the season, while Middlebury fell to 1-2.

Kyle Gagne also scored two goals and added an assist for the Scarlet and Brown, while Mike Donnelly added one goal and assisted on two others. Zachary Ettinghausen grabbed a team-high six ground balls and caused two turnovers, while Tyler Burns caused a season-high five turnovers and Zachary Prime went 12-for-16 at the faceoff dot.

Caffrey struck first for the Saints off a quick pass from Harrison Koch. Jack Sheehan notched a goal for the Panthers just over two minutes later to even the score 1-1, and A.J. Kucinski gave Middlebury a 2-1 lead heading into the second quarter.

Cunningham notched an unassisted tally at 13:50 of the second quarter and Gagne scored back-to-back goals to give the Saints a 4-2 advantage.

Cunningham struck once more making it 5-3 before halftime. Sheehan added the final goal for Middlebury with 9:14 to play in the third and the Saints saw a man-up goal from Donnelly, two from Caffrey and Cunningham's third goal to seal the Saints third straight win of the season.

"Another solid effort on both ends of the field and we were much better at the faceoff dot, which was great to see," said head coach Mike Mahoney '93 P'22. "We're excited to head south at the end of the week and get ready for our conference opener on Saturday."



Sheehan led Middlebury with two goals, while Kucinski scored once for the Panthers. Tyler Forbes picked up an assist, while Jack Gould picked up a team-best four ground balls.

Saints' goalkeeper Alex Terry also moved to 3-0 on the season with 12 saves, while Charles Midgley finished with 11 saves for the Panthers.

St. Lawrence held a 33-21 advantage in shots including a 20-15 edge in shots on goal. The Scarlet and Brown also posted a 24-22 advantage in ground balls and went 1-for-2 on the man-up advantage.

The Saints will head to Tampa, Florida on spring break to take on Vassar in their first Liberty League match of the season, and their first of three games in Tampa, on Saturday, March 16 at 4 p.m.