Seton Hill hosted the #5 NYIT Bears for their home opener of the 2016 season.  The Griffins used a five goal second quarter to take an 8-5 halftime lead and never looked back in a 12-10 victory over the visiting Bears.  SHU improves to 3-0 on the season while the Bears fall to 1-1 on the year.

NYIT got on the board first in the contest, scoring the opening goal of the game at the 10:27 mark of the first quarter.  Thirty seven seconds later Erik Hultgren tied the game at one with an unassisted goal.  The Bears took their last lead of the game at the 4:14 mark of the first quarter.  Zach Hartmann tied the game at two with an man up goal at the 3:02 mark of the quarter and fifteen seconds later Jack Miller scored to give SHU a 3-2 advantage after one quarter of play. 

Jack Moran scored from Garret Howell to open the scoring in the second quarter.  NYIT answered and cut the SHU lead to 4-3 with 11:08 to play in the quarter.  SHU then went on a three goal run to extend the lead to 7-3.  Zach Rusch found Hunter Hayes for the first two goals of the run and Hartmann found Moran for the third goal of the run.  SHU then got a three minute man up advantage but failed to score and allowed the Bears to get a man down goal with 2:01 to play in the quarter and cut the lead to 7-4.  The Bears used that momentum to score another goal and trim the lead to 7-5 with 28 seconds left in the half.  SHU got a huge goal from Rusch with 4 seconds to play in the half, giving the Griffins an 8-5 halftime lead. 

The Griffins scored the first two goals of the second half, 12 seconds apart to build their lead to 10-5.  Hayes scored the first goal from Moran and Miller scored the second one unassisted.  NYIT responded back with two straight to cut the Griffins lead to 10-7 with 5:19 to play.  Miller scored his third of the game from Hartmann to put SHU ahead 11-7 with 2:03 left in the quarter.  NYIT scored a man up goal to close out the third quarter and SHU led 11-8. 

Sean Stanners opened the scoring in the fourth quarter with a man up goal with 13:07 left in the fourth quarter.  Neither team was able to score until there was 3:17 left in the quarter and the Bears cut the SHU lead to 12-9.  NYIT cut the lead to 12-10 with a  goal with just over two minutes to play in the game.  Merritt Bailey then made a big save with 1:14 to play in the game and the Griffins were able to close out the game.

SHU held a 53-32 advantage in shots and 29-21 advantage in shots on goal.  The Griffins held a huge advantage in ground balls, winning the battle 42-12.  SHU also dominated the face off dot, winning 22 of 24 faceoffs. 

Hunter Hayes and Jack Miller led the Griffins attack with 3 goals each.  Jack Moran finished with 2 goals and 2 assists.  Zach Rusch and Zach Hartmann each added 1 goal and 2 assists.  Garret Howell also added 2 assists.  Nick Neferis was 21-23 in faceoffs and added 14 ground balls.  Merritt Bailey recorded 11 saves in net in the win. 

The Griffins will open ECAC play next Saturday when they host Lindenwood at 12 PM.