TROY, N.Y. - Freshman Cooper Urban had four goals and two assists and junior Owen Putman had three goals with three helpers to lead the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) men's lacrosse team to a 15-6 victory over Keene State College in the first game of the season for both teams. 

After neither team tallied in the first seven minutes, Urban put the Engineers ahead by notching his first with 7:20 to play in the opening frame. He scored again on a bouncing shot at 4:34 and Putman got on the scoreboard witha shot into the upper right corner less than two minutes later. Two of the goals were set up by senior Lucas Bastarache, including the third marker, which was a man-up goal. Bastararche then found classmate JT Kelly for a 4-0 lead 20 second after Putman scored, but the Owls answered with a goal from Joe Nutting with 15 seconds left.

Kelly got the goal back when he collected a pass from Urban, spun and scored just 1:35 into the second quarter. The score remained 5-1 until Keene State's Dave Wiedenfeld notched an unassisted goal on an underhanded shot with 2:43 to go in the first half. JP McGrady scored for RPI 44 seconds later - with an assist from Kelly - and Urban notched his third off a pass from Putman with only five seconds remaining. 

Rensselaer held a 31-14 lead in shots (14-2 on goal) and a 22-16 edge in ground balls in the first half. 

The Owls opened the second half with the first two goals, one by Nutting in transition and one from Wiedenfeld just outside the crease, but Kelly's second of the game just 13 seconds after Keene State made it 7-4 gave the Engineers the momentum. Putman followed with his second of the contest - and Bastarache's fourth assist - and RPI scored five of the next six goals for a 14-5 lead with 7:15 left in the fourth quarter. Wiedenfeld, a junior, scored his third of the game with six minutes left to break Rensselaer's streak.

In addition to his six points, Putman had 15 shots with six on goal and a team-high six ground balls. Urban added eight shots (6 on goal) and four ground balls, while Kelly had eight shots (4 on goal) and two ground balls. Tyler Hancock won 10 of 20 faceoffs and had a team-high six ground balls, while Keaton Ackermann caused three turnovers. Freshman Kyle Botsford stopped six shots with two ground balls in 30 minutes of action in goal. 

The Engineers had 30 more shots (59-29) and 15 more ground balls (43-28) than the Owls, who could manage just seven clears in 20 attempts. RPI was 18 of 20 on its clearing attempts. The win was the first with Rensselaer for head coach Scott Hackett-Dalgliesh, who was hired in August.

J.J. Tinney made 13 saves with two ground balls for Keene State, which saw Steve Hamel win 10 of 17 faceoffs and pick up a game-high nine balls. Wiedenfeld had eight shots (6 on goal) and two ground balls, while Nutting had two goals and an assist.

The Owls return to action on Tuesday when they play at Western New England University at 4pm. Rensselaer heads to the U.S. Coast Guard Academy for a game on Wednesday at 6pm.