Junior Judge Murphy tailed four goals and assisted on three others, while three other Saints recorded hat tricks as the No. 14 St. Lawrence University men's lacrosse team defeated SUNY Potsdam 19-8 in their season opener on Wednesday afternoon in Potsdam, New York.

Murphy also recorded six ground balls and one caused turnover to go with his seven points, while Ben Hutchinson, Stew Hutchinson and Chase Malatesta all recorded a hat trick. Ben Hutchinson also added three assists, two ground balls and a caused turnover.

Mark Mahoney, Cam Croasdaile, Zadoc White and Ben Kniskern also scored for the Saints, while Bobby Wells, Cody Sipher and Lucas Podvey all recorded assists. Paddy Condon went 10-for-12 from the faceoff circle and picked up a team-best eight ground balls, while Joe Scarfi picked up seven and caused two turnovers and first-year Sam Wade also caused two turnovers.

Croasdaile's goals were the first of his career wearing Scarlet and Brown.

Also contributing in the faceoff circle, was Brendan Brigham who went 8-for-13 and Podvey, who went 4-for-6.

Murphy got the ball rolling for the Saints, notching an unassisted tally on the first shot of the game, just 35 seconds into the first quarter.

Just about 30 seconds later, Potsdam's Drew Rose would tie the game, but back-to-back goals from Ben Hutchinson put the Scarlet and Brown up 3-1.

With the goals the two goals from Hutchinson, St. Lawrence would go on to score nine unanswered to build a 10-1 lead by the midway point of the second quarter.

Both teams tallied one more and the Saints carried a 11-2 lead into the break.

The Bears were first to the score sheet in the third quarter, but after trading runs down the stretch, three goals for the Saints, two for the Bears and another three for the Saints, St. Lawrence finished the game doubled up on the Bears.

"I thought we did a lot of positive things throughout the game," said head coach Mike Mahoney. "We will look to find more consistency but overall I loved the energy level and there is a lot to build on."

Owen Walsh and Peyton Walsh led the Bears with two goals apiece.

Michael Marinello finished with 11 saves for the Scarlet and Brown in the first game of the year, while Liam O'Neil made six for Potsdam. Both Andrew Vona and Elliott LaGorce also saw time between the pipes and LaGorce made two saves.

St. Lawrence outshot SUNY Potsdam 49-33, including 34-21 in shots on goal and the Saints picked up 54 ground balls to Potsdam's 27 and finished 3-for-9 on man-up opportunities, while the Bears finished 2-for-7.

St. Lawrence improved to 1-0 with its first win, while SUNY Potsdam fell to 0-1.

The Saints are scheduled to take on 12th-ranked St. John Fisher, this Saturday at home. Game time is scheduled for 2 p.m.