Nationally ranked No. 16 Amherst scored twice in the opening 8:04 of the first half and went on to a 2-0 NESCAC win against the Hamilton College Continentals at Amherst's Hitchcock Field on Saturday afternoon.

Hamilton (5-4-1, 4-2-1 NESCAC) is still tied for first place in the conference standings with 13 points and three NESCAC games remaining. The Continentals are tied with Amherst (9-1-1, 4-1-1), which still has to play four conference contests.

Cameron Hardington gave Amherst a 1-0 lead just 2:51 into the first half on assists from Cameron Bean and Jackson Lehnhart. In the ninth minute Lehnhart scored on a corner kick by Dane Lind.

Hamilton nearly cut its deficit in half in the closing seconds of the first half when two shots by Alec Talsania '17 were cleared off the line by Amherst defenders.

Lee Owen made three saves for the shutout and Harris Pollack '17 also made three stops for the Continentals. Pollack's goals against average is 0.80 in more than 790 minutes in goal.

Amherst held a 14-8 shot advantage and took five corner kicks to Hamilton's two.

The Continentals make the short trip to Utica College for a non-conference game on Wednesday, Oct. 12 at 5:30 p.m.