Montclair, NJ – Sophomore SKYLER FRANCISCO, junior BRYAN PETERS and senior ROB PAPA each scored twice as Montclair State bounced back from its season-opening loss with an 11-5 victory over Vassar College at Sprague Field on Wednesday evening.

DAN BELLEZZA recorded a goal and two assists as the Red Hawks squared their record at 1-1 on the season. Dekker Stebel had a pair of goals for Vassar, which is also 1-1.

Kyle Cherry gave the Brewers a 1-0 lead 2:35 into the game as he scored off an assist from Nick Diamond. Papa answered for MSU six minutes later tying the game before Francisco finished off a feed from Bellezza as the Red Hawks led 2-1 after one quarter.

Stebel tied the game early in the second however Montclair scored the next three to take the lead for good. Papa scored unassisted with 12:08 left and JON KAYE added another two minutes later with a Steven Prince goal with 7:45 left making the score 5-2. Drew Adams ended the run for Vassar but Francisco's second of the game with 21 ticks remaining gave MSU a 6-3 lead at halftime.

Peters extended the lead to four goals 51 seconds into the new half as he completed an extra-man opportunity for the Red Hawks. Austin Mello cut the deficit back to 7-4 21 seconds later. Montclair countered with goals by JOE LARACCA and Bellezza building a 9-4 advantage heading into the fourth.

Stebel got the first goal of the final period for the Brewers with Peters adding a second man-up goal a minute later. BRADY WULSTER accounted for the final Montclair State tally with just over nine minutes to play.

Face-off specialist MATT AXMANN had a solid evening winning 14-of-19 attempts with nine ground balls. Bellezza collected four ground balls with Papa scooping up three. Sophomore goalkeeper JACK CARDEW stopped nine shots for MSU, which had a 39-15 advantage in shots.

The Red Hawks are back in action on Saturday, March 3 with a road contest. Montclair heads to Troy, NY to face Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute at 1:00 pm.