BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - UMBC used a strong second-half effort to pull away from Binghamton and win its third straight America East contest on Saturday afternoon, 14-8. The Retrievers move to 4-6 on the season and 3-2 in conference play. Binghamton drops to 2-9 and 1-3. 

Ryan Demato had a career-high six points in the win, recording his fifth game this season with three or more goals and handing out three assists in a game for the first time in his career. Demato has scored multiple goals in eight straight games. Connor Chick recorded his second hat trick of the season, adding five points to the cause on the day. 

Tied 6-6 at halftime, UMBC scored three goals in the first 5:02 of the second half to pull ahead by three. Jameson Coffman scored a pair of goals, sandwiched around Jake Kucinski's second of the day. The Bearcats punched back, scoring back-to-back goals to make it 9-8 with 1:49 left in the third quarter, but Demato scored two goals in the final 1:34 of the quarter to boost the lead back up to three goals. 

In the fourth quarter, Chick took over, scoring all three of the Retrievers' goals to close out a 14-8 victory. Demato assisted on the first two before Kucinski found Chick for a beautiful behind-the-back goal to close things out with 6:29 remaining.

Binghamton jumped out ahead 2-0, getting goals in the first 2:48 from Will Feldmann and Tyler Martini. Demato put home the first goal of the game for the Retrievers at the 7:22 mark of the opening quarter before Nathan Ward found Kucinski on the man-up to tie the contest with 1:22 left in the first. 

The run continued for the Retrievers in the second, as they scored the first three goals of the period to make it five straight and take a 5-2 lead. Nick Gutierrez dodged his way around the Bearcat defense before giving UMBC the lead with 13:34 remaining in the first half. Chick delivered a beautiful feed in front of the net where Caiden Merritt stood to put home his first career goal with 11:45 on the clock in the second quarter. One minute later, Gavin Batelka scooped up a Binghamton turnover, took it the other way, and fired one home to put UMBC ahead by three. 

Binghamton answered with a three-goal run of its own to tie the contest with 6:09 left in the half, but Corey Myers gave UMBC the lead once more with 1:43 to play in the second. However, Feldmann's second goal of the day came at the 0:48 mark of the first half, sending the game to the break tied at 6-6.

Defensively, Dylan Sharpe caused a pair of turnovers for UMBC, while Connor McMahon earned the win, making eight saves and adding three ground balls. 

The Retrievers will host NJIT on Saturday as they honor the graduating class on Senior Day at 12 p.m.