Worcester, Mass. – Brandon King (Eastham, Mass.) and Rob Holden (East Longmeadow, Mass.) each recorded hat tricks and host Clark University set a new school record for wins in a single season with their hard-fought 14-8 win over Massachusetts Maritime Academy in New England Women's And Men's Athletic Conference (NEWMAC) lacrosse action on Wednesday night.

The win for the Cougars sends their overall record to 9-3 but more importantly their league record evens out at 2-2. For the Buccaneers, meanwhile, they have now dropped five straight to slip to 5-9 overall.

Holden's trio of goals gives him exactly 100 in what has been a spectacular offensive career. The 2013 league rookie of the year moves into third place on the school's all-time list behind only Andrew Webber (108) and John Toto (121). His 130 points put him in sixth place on the school's scoring list – tied with his head coach Jeff Cohen, who starred for the Scarlet and White from 1999-2002.

Since Cohen's return to Clark as head coach in time for the 2010 season, the program has made steady improvements and have now reached a win total no team in program history has after winning eight in each of the last two years.

The Cougars - and the Buccaneers for that matter – started off slow and the teams were in danger of a scoreless first quarter until Jack Pierce (Westborough, Mass.) connected with Lucas Petricone-Berg (Nyack, N.Y.) for the game's first marker with six seconds left in the frame.

Clark then got its offense clicking with three unassisted goals in the first four minutes of the second stanza to take a 4-0 lead. First Andrew Myhre (Middlebury, Vt.) found the back of the net and then the Scarlet and White special teams took over as Isaac Bass (Amherst, Mass.) and King scored goals on the man advantage.

Massachusetts Maritime woke up offensively, scoring three of the next four goals to get back into the game. Kenneth Parnell (Marshfield, Mass.) fired a rocket past Clark starting goalkeeper Jacob Reiner (Farmington, Conn.) and moments later Reed McLean (Wilbraham, Mass.) did the same, slicing their deficit in half.

King scored again to slow down the Buccaneers' momentum but McLean recorded another tally before the half ended, making the score 5-3 at intermission.

Clark opened the second half with a flourish starting with Will Mandracchia (Melrose, Mass.) scoring on the man advantage less than two minutes into the third period and then Jack Goracy (West Islip, N.Y.) fed a cutting Holden for his first of the night two minutes later.

Keaghan Bartley (Richmond, Va.) scored to give the visitors some life but the Cougars answered back with goals from Kyle Elkins (Stow, Mass.) and Holden to push their lead back to five goals as the third quarter wound down.

Parnell found the back of the net for the Buccaneers before the quarter ended but Ryan Moore (West Hartford, Conn.) fed King for his third of the night heading into the fourth.

Bartley and McLean connected for McLean's third of the evening but as they did all night Clark seemed to have a two goal answer. Goracy scored his only goal of the night moments after McLean and then Matthew Sullivan (Brunswick, Maine) notched a man-down strike to give Clark a commanding 12-6 lead with less than ten minutes left to play.

Ted Powers (Marshfield, Mass.) set up Zack O'Brien (Lakeville, Mass.) with 6:57 to go but once again the Cougars scored the next two goals – the century mark tally from Holden and another from Elkins to put the game away. Massachusetts Maritime did get another goal with less than 30 seconds left to play as Powers dished to Bartley for his second of the night.

As mentioned, the Scarlet and White excelled in special teams situations, going 3-for-5 with the extra man advantage, while their man down defense pitched a shutout, holding the Buccaneers to 0-for-4 when they were a man up.

The game was pretty sloppy in parts as the teams combined to commit 43 turnovers and nine penalties.

James Klose (Ellicott City, Md.) was strong in net for the visitors, registering 11 saves, while the three-headed monster of Reiner, Nathan Maselek (Marblehead, Mass.) and Tom Berzok (Milltown, N.J.) – combined for 15 stops in Reiner's first collegiate victory.

Both teams are back in action on Saturday with stiff conference tests. Massachusetts Maritime travels to Cambridge for a meeting with MIT while Clark hosts Babson on Senior Day.