No. Andover, Mass. (May 1) -- In the Northeast-10 Tournament Quarterfinals on Tuesday evening, the 2007 season came to an end with an 8-7 loss to fourth-seeded Merrimack. The Hawks advanced to the tournament as the No. 5 seed after winning four of their last five games, all on the road, to finish with a 4-5 record in the NE-10. The clinching game was a thrilling 10-9 double-overtime win at Pace last weekend.

Merrimack jumped on the board first with 10:37 remaining in the first quarter on a goal from freshman Derek Maroni. The Hawks answered right back less than a minute later to tie it at 1-1 on a goal from freshman Ryan McDonald (Bow, N.H.). Sophomore standout Chris Murphy (Winchester,Mass.) gave the Hawks a 2-1 lead at the 10:52 mark and that lead stood until the 2:37 mark when Greg Rogowski found the back of the net to tie things at 2-2.

With 1:10 remaining in the opening half, freshman Matt O’Connell (Charlestown,Mass.) fired a pass from behind the net to Matt Surette (Wakefield,Mass.), who gunned it past Merrimack goalie Eric Tompkins for a 3-2 lead. In the final minutes of the half, Rogowski took control for the Warriors behind the Hawks net and stuffed in the goal with 0.8 left on the clock to knot things at 3-3 heading into the half.

Senior Brian Hubert (Nashua,N.H.), the hero in the team’s win at Pace, gave the Hawks the lead at 4-3 with 11:17 left in the third quarter on an unassisted score. Murphy then pushed the lead to 5-3 at the 9:35 mark, but Rogowski completed the hat trick just 16 seconds later to pull the Warriors back within one goal. The torrid scoring pace continued as Steve Trocki (Braintree,Mass.) gave the visitors a 6-4 lead, assisted by O’Connell. Just seven seconds later though at the 8:05 mark of the third, Chris Elia scored on a goal assisted on by Rogowski and the Warriors evened it up at 6-6 on an unassisted score from KyleBeaudoin with 5:22 left in the quarter.

In the fourth, Merrimack took its first lead since the opening goal when Taylor Roberts picked up a ground ball in front of the net and scored with 13:16 left for the 7-6 lead. The Warriors maintained possession for much of the next six minutes and it paid off as the hosts extended the lead to 8-6 with 7:42 left on a goal from Elia. Saint Anselm’s Murphy completed his hat trick with 5:55 remaining on a man-up score and pulled the Hawks back to within 8-7. The Hawks could get no closer though as the Warriors hung on for the one-goal win.

Senior goalie Andrew Roy (Westford, Mass.) made 10 saves in his final collegiate game for Saint Anselm.

With the loss, the Hawks end the season at 6-8 overall. Merrimack improves to 6-7 overall and will now take on top-seeded Bryant University on Friday afternoon in Smithfield, R.I., beginning at 4 p.m.