NEW LONDON, Conn. – February 22, 2023 – The Dean College men's lacrosse team received goals from 16 players en route to an impressive 24-3 victory at Mitchell in a season opener for both teams.   

Dean (1-0) will play Sage at home next Wednesday on Grant Field at 3 p.m. Mitchell (0-1), who will become a member of the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) next season, travels to MCLA on Saturday for a 1 p.m. contest with the Trailblazers.

Junior Will Brooks (Weston, Conn.) led the Bulldogs with four goals and an assist. Senior Greg Centeio (Fairhaven, Mass.) and junior Diego Alvarez-Segee (Saugus, Mass.) each scored three times, while junior Jeremy Montazella (Old Lyme, Conn.) added two goals. Sophomore Ray Randall (Feeding Hills, Mass.) picked up a game best 13 ground balls to go with a goal. He won 10-of-17 faceoffs. Junior Tyler Benedetto (Jupiter, Fla.) was 9-of-11 in the faceoff circle and registered seven ground balls.  

Dean senior goalie James Rollins (Old Lyme, Conn.) got the win with a clean 30 minutes of action. Sophomore Jake Sock (Warwick, R.I.) did not allow a goal and made one save in the third quarter, while first-year Matthew Fenlason (Winthrop, Maine) worked the final quarter and allowed three goals with two saves.

Senior Ethan Wheeler (Annapolis, Md.) took the loss for the Mariners and made 13 saves.

Benedetto took the opening faceoff into the offensive end of the field and found Alvarez-Segee for the score, three seconds into the contest to tie the NCAA Division III record for fastest goal to start a game (happened two other times). The Bulldogs kept clicking in their season opener and erupted for six more scores in the quarter to take a 7-0 lead after 15 minutes. Alvarez-Segee and Centeio each scored a pair in the frame.

The Bulldogs added nine goals from nine different players in the second to take a 16-0 advantage into the halftime break.

After Dean put up another six goals in the third, Mitchell broke through in the fourth with three straight goals. The Bulldogs tacked on two more down the stretch to account for the 24-3 final.