Nationally ranked No. 10 Amherst College scored at least three goals in every quarter and posted a 17-9 NESCAC win against the Hamilton College Continentals at Hamilton's Steuben Field on Saturday afternoon.

The Continentals (2-5, 1-3 NESCAC) are in the middle of a homestand in which they play three games on campus in eight days. Six Hamilton players scored at least one goal.

Amherst (5-2, 2-1) entered the day averaging more than 13 goals per game and the Purple & White came out firing in this contest with five in the first quarter including a pair in the opening two minutes. Amherst won 23 of 29 faceoffs, held a 49-28 advantage in ground balls and scored on 3 of 5 man-up opportunities.

Henry Hill '19 paced the Continentals' offense with a career-high three goals. Clay McCollum '19 chipped in two goals and an assist and Nate Weinrauch '17 was credited with two helpers. McCollum leads the team with 12 goals and 15 points and Weinrauch has a team-best six assists.

Rob Arrix '19 led the Hamilton defense with three caused turnovers and Jack Warren '19 added two to go along with four ground balls. Weinrauch also scooped up four ground balls. Noah Weissmann '18 started in goal and made nine saves in the first half. John Schisler '17 relieved Weissmann and stopped eight shots in the second half.

Colin Minicus led the Purple & White with seven points on three goals and four assists and added five ground balls. Brogan Mahon added three goals and an assist and Jack Norton found the back of the net three times. Dylan Finazzo won 22 of 26 faceoffs and collected 17 ground balls. Andrew Ford caused four turnovers and Uzoma Egbuchula had four ground balls. Cody Tranbarger stopped 16 shots in 57 minutes in goal.

Minicus found Mahon for the first two goals and Amherst led 2-0 just 1:54 into the first quarter. Brock Bowers '20 cut the Continentals' deficit in half on his fourth goal with 11:59 left in the first before Ford scored on a feed from Minicus with 6:51 remaining. Hill notched an unassisted goal that pulled Hamilton within one again with 4:29 to go.

The Purple & White scored the next three goals and grabbed a 6-2 cushion early in the second quarter. Amherst led by at least three goals the rest of the afternoon. Minicus and Mahon tallied goals late in the first quarter and Chris Albanese made it a four-goal advantage with 12:11 left in the second.

Owen McCarthy '20 scored his fourth goal for the Continentals and cut the Purple & White's advantage to 6-3 with 10:13 remaining in the second, and J.D. Brachman '17 made it 7-4 on his fifth goal with 6:26 to go. Jordan Fong '18 scored his second goal of the year and the last one of the first half with 2:21 left as Amherst took a 9-5 lead into the break.

After the Purple & White notched a man-up goal 15 seconds into the third quarter, McCollum made it a four-goal game again with 13:34 remaining. Amherst essentially clinched its victory by scoring the next four goals in a little more than four minutes for a 14-6 advantage midway through the third. Minicus scored the first two goals in the quick spurt. McCollum and Hill scored again late in the quarter and Hill rounded out the scoring on his sixth goal with 1:21 to go in the fourth quarter.

Hamilton hosts St. John Fisher College on Withiam Field for a non-conference game on Tuesday, March 28 at 5 p.m. Amherst hosts Springfield College in non-conference action on Wednesday, March 29 at 4:30 p.m.