IMMACULATA, PA - A rainy Wednesday afternoon fit in well with Susquehanna men's lacrosse's travel plans at Immaculata. The River Hawks cascaded down 19 goals on the Mighty Macs, including eight in the first quarter that matched Immaculata's scoring output for the afternoon in a 19-8 victory. The win gives Susquehanna its first 5-0 start since 2015. 

Familiar faces played their roles to near perfection as Jack Gaillard led with six assists and five goals for 11 points on the day. Chris Ciccarello also delivered five goals, as well as five assists for a ten-point day. The two were part of SU's first five goals to start the game, as Gaillard scored the first goal off an assist by Nick Remund. Ciccarello assisted the second goal that was scored by Steven Musser. After IU scored to cut the lead to 2-1, Gaillard offered his first assist of the day on Pat McDermott's score to regain a two-goal lead at 3-1. The Mighty Macs remained persistent with another score to make it a one-goal game again at 3-2, only for the River Hawks to shower six unanswered goals over the first and second quarters to go up 9-2. Ciccarello scored and Gaillard assisted on the team's fourth and fifth goals on the day. The tandem's scoring flow was not needed for the team's sixth goal as another familiar scoring threat Brennan Lorence helped in the next one, assisting Nick Remund's second goal of the day to make it 6-2 with 37 seconds left in the first. This apppeared to be the score after one quarter, but a swift set of circumstances propoelled Susquehanna further ahead before the end of the period. Faceoff man Alexander Messina scooped the ensuing faceoff, which was handed off to Ciccarello who fed Gaillard for a quick score and a 7-2 lead with 18 seconds left in the period. When this now appeared to be a five-goal game after one, fellow faceoff specialist Brandon Cash helped SU win the next faceoff, where now Gaillard fed Ciccarello for another score with seconds to play in the first and an 8-2 lead.

Things settled somewhat in the second, with both sides exchanging three goals. Susquehanna got theirs on a Lorence goal to open the period from Ciccarello to lead 9-2. Ciccarello and Gaillard again went to work on the next two goals, with Ciccarello scoring from Gaillard to make it 10-3, then Gaillard from Ciccarello to go up 11-3. The Mighty Macs closed the half with two straight goals as the River Hawks led at the half 11-5 before Gaillard and Ciccarello buddied up again to open the second half scoring to go up 12-5. This opened up a six-goal Susquehanna third quarter, while Immaculata was held scoreless in the frame thanks to the goalie work of Augie Granatelli, who closed out his day near the end of the third period to earn the win and ten saves in his tour of duty. The River Hawks' other five goals of the period came from Gabe Broome, Gaillard from Kieran Thomas, Cash, Ciccarello from Reese Ackerman, and McDermott from Gaillard to take a 17-5 lead into the fourth. SU offered up two more in the fourth as Owen Teaney scored from a Drew Filipovits and Ackerman scoring from a Connor Aitken assist. SU goalies TJ Lynch, Will Harcourt, and Ian Murphy all saw action in goal in the final stretch, with Lynch offering two saves and Harcourt one save. 

In a shot-laced afternoon, Susquehanna outshot Immaculata 50-40, including 36-21 in shots on goal. The River Hawks took advantage of both their extra-man opportunities and won 19-of-30 faceoffs, including Cash winning 14-of-19 and Messina 5-of-9. On the defensive side Susquehanna caused eight turnovers, led by three from Dylan New.

Head coach Stewart Moan's team's hot start is second-best in program history, with the 2015 team one game ahead starting 6-0. The River Hawks look to match that this Saturday at home hosting Haverford at 1 p.m.