Nationally ranked No. 5 Amherst College scored the first four goals and went on to post a 17-7 NESCAC win against the Hamilton College Continentals at Amherst's Pratt Field on Saturday afternoon.

The Purple and White (6-1, 3-0 NESCAC) won their third straight game since their only loss this season -- a 10-8 setback against Western New England University on March 15 in Florida.

Hamilton (3-4, 1-3), which received votes in this week's Division III Top 20 coaches poll, pulled within two goals of Amherst on three occasions in the first half but didn't get any closer.

Pat Donahoe '16 paced the Continentals' offense with three goals and two assists for a career-high five points. Clay McCollum '19 chipped in two goals and Sam Sweet '16 added a goal and an assist. Sweet leads the team with 17 goals and 10 helpers. J.D. Brachman '17 tallied his 13th goal this year and his 39th at Hamilton.

Eric Zurmuehle '18 won 16 of 27 faceoffs, scooped up a dozen ground balls and was credited with an assist for the Continentals. Zurmuehle, who has won nearly 70 percent of his faceoffs this year, leads the conference with 73 ground balls. Sellers Garrett '16 led the defense with four ground balls and Noah Weissmann '18 made 10 saves.

Eleven players finished with two points or more for the Purple and White. Quinn Moroney led the group with a goal and five assists, and Kane Haffey scored four times. Charlie Gill boasted a goal and three assists, and Chris Albanese had a goal and two helpers. Connor Crump, Matt Killian and Brett Inglesby notched two goals each. Dylan Park, Michael Litner, Andrew Ford and Rob Butko all ended up with a goal and an assist.

Ford picked up four ground balls and Ryan Cassidy added four ground balls and two caused turnovers for Amherst. Cody Tranbarger stopped 10 shots in 55-plus minutes.

Killian, Park, Crump and Gill scored the goals as the Purple and White grabbed a 4-0 advantage in the opening 5:11 of the first quarter. Brachman found the back of the net on a pass from Donahoe and Donahoe scored to pull Hamilton within 4-2 after one quarter.

Amherst scored just 11 seconds into the second quarter but Zurmuehle won the ensuing faceoff and fed McCollum to make it a two-goal game again 13 seconds later. After the Purple and White went up 6-3 with 11:17 left, the Continentals struck quickly again, this time on a goal by Sweet 32 seconds later.

Amherst scored the next two and had a four-goal cushion again midway through the quarter. Donahoe's second goal of the day made it 8-5 at 6:23 but the Purple and White went back up by four 1:17 later. Sweet found McCollum for a goal that cut Hamilton's deficit to three at 9-6 with 4:17 remaining. Amherst scored 45 seconds later and took a 10-6 advantage into the break.

In the second half, Donahoe's eighth goal of the year midway through the third quarter was the Continentals' only goal in the final 30 minutes. Amherst led 14-7 after three.

Hamilton hosts Bates College on Steuben Field for another NESCAC game on Saturday, April 2, at 1 p.m. The Bobcats are ranked sixth in the current poll.