Clearwater, Fla. – Sophomore Nick Johnson (Amherst, Mass.) recorded his fifth career hat trick and Clark University improved to 3-0 for the second straight season with a workman-like 6-4 win over Misericordia University in non-league men's lacrosse action on Friday evening at Joe DiMaggio Field.

The win marks the second straight season in which the Cougars have swept their two games in Florida during their annual spring break trip and have won six of the eight games played there since the team's first visit in 2012.

Clark wasted little time getting on the board in the first quarter as Ian Daly (Wantagh, N.Y.) fed John Goracy (Lumberton, N.J.) for his team-leading seventh goal of the season just 3:05 into the contest.

That lead doubled in the waning seconds of the opening stanza when Johnson deposited his first of the night with one second remaining on the first quarter clock.

Misericordia then went on a scoring run that evened the game at halftime. First, Brandon Winslow registered his first career goal early in the second and then Andrew Reynolds found Chris Fleming less than 30 seconds later for the equalizer.

The Scarlet and White went back in front when Goracy and Johnson teamed up for Johnson's second of the day just 3:49 in the period.

Ahead 3-2, the Cougars looked poised to take that advantage into halftime, but Misericordia stole the momentum with Patrick Clark knotting the game with exactly two minutes left in the half.

The third quarter moved along at a quick pace in part due to no scoring until Johnson set up Rob Holden (East Longmeadow, Mass.) for a man-advantage tally with 2:30 left in the period.

As they had all game, seemingly, Misericordia had an answer. This time is was Lane Kocovsky finding the back of the net with help from Fleming, again tying the score just 3:30 into the fourth.

Clark responded, as Johnson scored again two minutes later, bumping the Scarlet and White edge to 5-4 with a little more than nine minutes to go.

Keegan Callahan (Tewksbury, Mass.) then put the game away with 1:58 to go when he collected his first score of the season.

Drew Riopelle-Tyrell (Northfield, Mich.) was again stellar in net for Clark, turning aside 19 Misericordia shots.

Clark is off until next Saturday when they travel to Skidmore College for a 2:00 p.m. faceoff with the Thoroughbreds.