Waterville, Maine - The Colby Men's Lacrosse team displayed a relentless offensive effort and dominant performance at the face-off X in their match up against the Engineers of MIT. Despite the 15-9 final score, the Mules out shot the Engineers 43-39 and controlled the possession game for much of the afternoon.

Colby's Tristan Bassett was a force in the middle, winning 17 of 28 face-offs to provide the Mules with consistent scoring opportunities. The Mules took an early lead in the first quarter when Easton Bello found the back of the net unassisted, followed quickly by a goal from James Counselman off an assist from Eli Chilicki to put Colby up 2-1.

The second quarter saw the Mules continue to pressure the MIT defense. Jacob Thibodeau leveled the score at 3-3 early in the period thanks to a feed from Nick Sokolosky. Daniel O'Connor and Bello each added scores later in the frame, keeping the Mules within striking distance heading into the halftime break.

Colby's grit was on full display in the third quarter. While playing a man down, Chilicki powered through for a shorthanded goal to bring the Mules within one. O'Connor added his second goal of the day shortly after to keep the momentum swinging in Colby's favor.

In the final frame, Brian Bowler sparked the offense with a goal assisted by Gavin Rothenberg, and Thibodeau capped off his multi-goal performance with a late unassisted strike.

Defensively, the Mules were active and aggressive, forcing 21 MIT turnovers. Cormac Wright led the charge with three caused turnovers, while Drew Gannon and Preston Maze each added a caused turnover of their own. Rothenberg picked up four ground balls, while Bassett led all players with six. Senior Will Heisler recorded two saves for the Mules through 45 minutes and first-year Zachary Parks recorded four saves through the final 15 minutes.

Though the result didn't go their way, the Mules proved they could dictate the pace of play, winning the battle in shots, turnovers, and face-offs. Colby will look to carry that offensive aggression into their next conference match up against Connecticut College on Saturday at 12pm.