Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute ran off five straight goals late in the second quarter and early in the third, and the nationally ranked No. 17 Engineers held on for a 13-10 non-conference win against the Hamilton College Continentals at Hamilton's Campus Road Athletic Complex on Tuesday night.

RPI (10-2 overall) extended its win streak to nine games. The Engineers scored five times in the second quarter and led 7-5 at the break. RPI's advantage grew to four goals at 10-6 after three quarters.

The Continentals (3-10) were playing their final home game of 2016 against an old Liberty League rival. Hamilton scored four goals in a row in the fourth quarter and pulled within 12-10 with 3:16 left after the Continentals were down by six goals midway through the quarter.

Joe Ricciuti '16 paced Hamilton with a career-high five goals. Sam Sweet '16 chipped in two goals and two assists, and Nate Weinrauch '17 added a goal and two helpers. Sweet leads the Continentals with 24 goals and 20 assists. Clay McCollum '19 scored his 22nd goal this year and Adam Markhoff '18 recorded his second career goal.

Eric Zurmuehle '18 won 14 of 24 faceoffs and Casey Kopp '17 scooped up seven ground balls for Hamilton. Zurmuehle has won nearly 64 percent of his faceoffs this year. John Schisler '17 made nine saves, including four in the fourth quarter to keep the game close.

Matthew Gilman led the Engineers with two goals and an assist as eight players scored at least one goal for RPI. Breanainn McNeally, JT Kelly, Jake Weidner and Matt Hall tallied two goals each. Billy Gibbs recorded a goal, five ground balls and four caused turnovers. Oliver Kaija won 10 faceoffs and scored a goal, and Connor Hill and Blake Frasca caused four turnovers apiece. David Gibbs made six saves in 55-plus minutes in goal.

The score was tied at 5-5 after Ricciuti's second goal of the evening with 4:29 left in the second quarter. Hall scored a man-up goal and gave the Engineers the lead for good with 2:33 remaining. RPI was 2-for-2 on extra-man opportunities. Weidner made it 7-5 on a goal with 8.5 seconds to go in the quarter.

Weidner gave the Engineers a three-goal cushion 3:33 into the third quarter and Gibbs scored 18 seconds later for a 9-5 advantage. Hall capped the five-goal run with 9:44 left in the third.

Kelly's second goal of the night made it 12-6 in favor of RPI with 6:46 remaining in the fourth quarter. Sweet and Ricciuti keyed a four-goal run in a span of less than three minutes that put the Continentals right back in it. Weinrauch found Sweet for a goal with 6:01 to go and Sweet passed to Ricciuti for another score during a man-up opportunity 64 seconds later. Ricciuti scored again with 3:52 left and McCollum cut Hamilton's deficit to two goals at 12-10 just 36 seconds later.

The Engineers won the ensuing faceoff but Schisler made a save with 2:01 remaining. The Continentals took four shots during the next 70 seconds but one was blocked, another sailed wide and Gibbs saved the other two, including the last one with 50 seconds to go. McNeally clinched the win for RPI on his goal with 20 seconds left.

Hamilton travels to Trinity College for a NESCAC game on Saturday, April 23 at 1 p.m. The Engineers host St. Lawrence University in league play on Saturday at 1.