AMHERST, Mass. -- It was a senior day extravaganza Saturday on Pratt Field at Lehrman Stadium as the Amherst men's lacrosse team celebrated the careers of Montana McLaughlin, Paul Richardson, Jake Bennett, Will Mohr, Connor Guest, Ryan Rahbany, John Fitzhenry, Jacob Bruno and Louie Adams  and started an nearly all senior line-up en route to an 18-9 victory over Bates. 

Bennet had one goals and five assists in the win, while Bob Gross had six goals and an assist for seven points and Alex Giacobbe had three goals and four assists for seven points. 

Amherst improved to 8-3 overall and 5-2 in the conference while Bates fell to 3-10 overall and 0-9 in NESCAC play. The Mammoths hit the road for a make-up game at Bowdoin College Monday. It will be a 5 p.m. start up in Brunswick. 

GAME HIGHLIGHTS:

* Bates came to play, taking a 1-0 lead inside two minutes. The Mammoths tied it with 12:51 left in the first when Matthew Sheinberg took a pass from Nicholas Kopp at the right hashmark about 10 yards out and fired a shot into the far left side of the goal. Down 2-1, the Mammoths tied it at 2--all when Brendan Reilly took a pass from Bennett down low and to the right of the Bobcats' goal, and from a sharp angle beat the goalkeeper with a shot with 10:26 to go. 

* Amherst took its first lead of the game with 8:52 left in the initial stanza when gross received a pass from Giacobbe from nearly the same place Sheinberg scored and rocketed a shot into the far left top corner of the goal. The Mammoths led 4-3 with 4:14 to go when Gross, from behind the Bates net, found Thompson Lau cutting across the slot wide open and hit him with a pass that Lau quickly flicked by the keeper for a two-goal lead. Amherst led 6-4 after the first quarter. 

* Bennett made it a 7-4 lead just 2:10 into the second quarter when he received a pass from Reilly as he cut from the right to the center and wound up a laser that found the netting in the top left. Amherst led 8-6 late in the quarter when Bennett Chow, Reilly and Gross scored consecutive goals over the final 8:35 to take an 11-6 lead into halftime. 

* Amherst outscored Bates 5-0 in the third quarter to build a commanding 16-5 lead. Gross and Giacobbe each had two goals in that period. 

BY THE NUMBERS:

* Amherst had a 58-45 advantage in shots taken and a 42-41 advantage in ground balls. Bates had 15 turnovers in the game compared to 10 from Amherst.  The Mammoths won 19 of 31 face-offs. 

* Nicholas Kopp had a team-high eight ground balls and won 16 of 25 face-offs taken. Lau led the team with five ground balls while Giacobbe notched four. Adams topped the team with two caused turnovers. 

* Mammoth goalkeeper Brooks Catlin stopped 13 of the 21 shots he faced in nearly 55 minutes of action.