Worcester, Mass. – Anchored by hat tricks from both Jacob Maselek (Marblehead, Mass.) and Jeffrey Wasson (Buckhorn, Ontario), host Clark University held off a hard-charging UMass-Boston squad with a 13-7 win over the Beacons on Friday evening at Granger Field.

The win for the Cougars equals the best start in school history, tying the 3-1 mark posted by the 2000 team – a squad that featured a sophomore midfielder named Jeff Cohen. Now the head coach at his alma mater and in the midst of his fourth season, Cohen already has the second-most wins in program history and a pair of Pilgrim League Coach of the Year awards.

For the Beacons, meanwhile, the defeat ends a tough stretch in which they played three games in four days – including tonight's showdown after a heartbreaking 10-9 loss at Wentworth on Thursday night.

In tonight's matchup, Clark wasted little time getting on the board as Peter Christiansen (Seattle, Wash.) handed out the first of his three assists on Wasson's first marker less than one minute into the contest.

A few minutes later it was the freshman combination of Rob Holden (East Longmeadow, Mass.) and Maselek connecting for Maselek's tenth goal of the year.

Nobody scored for nearly a full quarter as the first frame became the second, but Thomas Petitti (Quincy, Mass.) changed that with laser past Kevin Ranta (Beverly, Mass.) less than three minutes into the second. Petitti was at it again, knotting the score at 2-2 with another unassisted marker with exactly seven minutes left in the half.

The Cougars responded – scoring three goals in the final 1:58 of the half to take a 5-2 halftime edge. First, Holden set up Maselek again, then Christiansen fed Luke Dunn (Amherst, Mass.) and then Patrick Burke (New Canaan, Conn.) wrapped up the scoring spree with an assist on Wasson's second of the half.

Midway through the third UMass-Boston had the lead back at two when Pete McNichols (Norwalk, Conn.) found a streaking Dom Fichera (Scituate, Mass.) for his fifth tally of the season.

Once again, however, Clark put three straight on the board as Holden got a man-up marker, then Wasson scored his third and then he set up Maselek for his third, making the score 8-3 heading into the fourth.

The Beacons tightened things up early in the final period when Donny Delpha (Walpole, Mass.) scored a man-advantage goal and then one at even strength – both within two minutes of each other to bring UMass-Boston to within striking distance.

As they did all game, Clark answered back, this time getting goals from Nick Figliola (Weston, Conn.) and Christiansen to make the score 10-5 with a little more than ten minutes to play.

UMB made one final push as Delpha found McNichols on the man-advantage and then scored his third of the game with 8:23 to play.

That goal wound up being the Beacons last and the Cougars pulled away as Ryan Moore (West Hartford, Conn.) scored and then Keegan Callahan (Tewksbury, Mass.) put the game away with a pair of scores less  than 30 seconds apart. 

Henry Bristol (South Hadley, Mass.) was excellent in goal for the Beacons, making 15 saves as he was peppered with 40 Clark shots.

In addition to three-goal nights from Maselek and Wasson, the Cougars got two goals and an assist from Callahan and a goal and three assists from Christiansen.

Zach Duffy (Wakefield, Mass.) scooped up a game-best eight ground balls, while Ranta made 13 saves in net.

Clark will return to the field on Wednesday when they visit Salve Regina, while the Beacons visit Hood College on Thursday.