PHILADELPHIA – Leading by one heading into the final 23:42 of regulation, the Hawks broke the game open with 10 straight goals as the Saint Joseph's men's lacrosse team recorded a 16-6 win over Sacred Heart in a snowy Northeast Conference game played on Sweeeny Field on Saturday afternoon. With their fifth consecutive victory, the Hawks improve to 8-2 overall, the best record through the first 10 games of the season in program history, and 3-0 in the NEC. Sacred Heart falls to 2-9 overall and 0-3 in league play. Senior attackman Pat Swanick scored a game-high four goals while junior attackman Mike Rastivo (3g, 1a), redshirt sophomore midfielder Hayes McGinley (2g, 1a), sophomore midfielder Davis Stoner (2g) added multi-goal performances. "I didn't think that we were sharp in the first half," said head coach Taylor Wray. "It got a little bit better as the game wore on. Overall, it was a good effort, but we need to be sharper. We'll talk about it and work on it and see if we can find a way to do that. Pleased to be 3-0 in the league." The Hawks jumped out to an early three-goal lead as Rastivo scored twice in 15 seconds (14:25, 14:10) and Swanick added his first of the day at the 13:22 mark of the first quarter. Sacred Heart's Max Tuttle tucked away an unassisted goal just under three minutes later (10:48) to close the Pioneers' deficit to two, 3-1. Rastivo found sophomore attackman Jason Kelly (11:28) to start the second-quarter scoring and to extend SJU's lead back out to three goals, 4-1, but SHU's Matt Posch responded just nine seconds later to once again pull the Pioneers to within two, 4-2, with 11:19 to play in the first half. The Pioneers and Hawks would then alternate goal scoring twice, with SJU's Stoner (5:29) and sophomore attackman Kyle Cain (1:00) tallying goals to put the Hawks up, 6-4, entering the halftime break. Sacred Heart cut the deficit to one as Brian Masi found Julian Garritano just under two minutes (13:29) out of the halftime break, but the Hawks would score the next 10 consecutive goals of the game to jump out to a 16-5 advantage entering the final 5:27. Sophomore attackman Chris Blewitt found Swanick (3rd, 8:42) and junior midfielder Marcus Milione (3rd, 7:13) to kick off the 10-goal run that spanned the next 18 minutes and 15 seconds. McGinley followed up just 54 seconds later (6:19) on a feed from junior midfielder Kevin Reidinger before Swanick scored at the buzzer to close out the third quarter. A Sacred Heart slashing penalty allowed for a McGinley-to-Rastivo man-up goal to start the fourth quarter (14:19) before Swanick (13:23), McGinley (12:23), senior midfielder Rich Gabelman (10:55), and Forster (7:33) combined for four goals in just under six minutes and Stoner closed out the run with his second of the day with 5:27 to play. The Pioneers added one final score in the final four minutes, but the Hawks' 16 goals would stand as time expired. For the game, Sacred Heart earned a slight 35-34 edge in shots, while Saint Joseph's won the ground-ball battle 17-12. SJU won 16 of 25 possessions from the X while the Hawks' defensive unit held the Pioneers scoreless in two extra-man opportunities. Junior face-off specialist Mike Lanham went 15-of-23 from the circle and matched a game-high six ground balls. Freshman Daniel Lanham went 1-of-2 in the game's final two possessions. In addition to his two goals, Stoner scooped up six ground balls and added two caused turnovers, while junior midfielder Anthony Joaquim recorded five ground balls and two caused turnovers. Junior goalkeeper T.J. Jones (8-2, 3-0 NEC) made a season-high 15 saves in net and allowed just five goals in the first 53:18. Saint Joseph's returns to NEC action next Saturday, April 16 against Bryant. Opening face-off is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. on Sweeney Field. GAME NOTES: At 8-2, Saint Joseph's is off to its best start through 10 games in program history... Saint Joseph's improves to 15-0 all-time in NEC regular-season contests since joining the league in 2014... The Hawks have outscored their three NEC opponents 44-17 this season... SJU improves to 5-2 all-time against Sacred Heart and 3-0 under the direction of head coach Taylor Wray.