March 12, 2003 

SPRINGFIELD, MA - The Amherst College men's lacrosse team opened its season with an 18-3 rout over Bates College in a NESCAC matchup on Wednesday afternoon. Senior attackman Chris Condlin (Baltimore, MD) paced the Jeffs with five goals, while sophomore midfielder Andrew Syfu (Hobart, IN) netted a goal and dished out three assists. 

Bates drew first blood less than a minute into the contest when sophomore middie Dan Ross (Chevy Chase, MD) dodged past a defender and tickled the twine. The Jeffs countered with a pair of goals late in the opening quarter to take a 2-1 lead heading into the second. The Bobcats evened the score 2:32 into the second when sophomore attackman Peter Friedman (Putney, VT) connected on a bounce shot. Shortly thereafter, junior attackman Mike Allison (W.Nyack, NY) tallied the first of his two goals, giving the Jeffs a 3-2 lead. 

Amherst erupted for five more goals before the break, extending the advantage to 8-2. The barrage continued in the second half as Condlin struck for five of the next six Jeff goals. Amherst senior midfielder Chris Kane (Swampscott, MA) took a feed from rookie midfielder Sean Murray (Madison, NJ) and found the back of the net to round the scoring out at 18-3. 

Sophomore Cushing Donelan (Noroton, CT) and first-year Raul Altreche (Bronx, NY) combined to turn aside 14 shots for Amherst, while senior Mark Dobbyn (Warren, RI), rookie Paul Kazarian (Providence, RI) and junior Chas Garrison (Chevy Chase, MD) notched 12 saves for Bates. 

With the victory, the Jeffs improve to 1-0 overall and 1-0 in league play, while the Bobcats drop to 1-3 and 0-2. Amherst returns to action Sunday at 4 p.m. in Port Richey, Florida against non-conference opponent Clarkson University. 

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