NAMPA, Idaho - It's been just shy of three weeks since Northwest Nazarene men's lacrosse went on the road and picked up their first top ten victory over previously ranked #10 UC-San Diego, and now the 15th-ranked Nighthawks have done it again, this time at home knocking off a PNCLL conference foe in the #7 ranked Montana Griz.

Saturday's contest had a playoff atmosphere with a large crowd finding their seats thirty minutes prior to the open faceoff. The NNU student base showed up in numbers to support the team on student appreciation night, as well as over two hundred high school lacrosse players throughout the region that were in town competing in a tournament hosted at NNU by Nighthawks head coach, Tom Blanchard.

NNU did not disappoint, as after going down 2-0 in the first quarter the Nighthawks would get their first goal of the game from senior Loy Howard, who created space to put one past the goalie. After Howard punched in the first goal to get the Nighthawks' offense on the board, minutes later he would assist junior attackman Caleb Johnson for the equalizer.

On the ensuing faceoff, junior Rayce Neill won the draw to fellow junior Josh Johnson, who would take it to the house for the go-ahead goal to give the Nighthawks a 3-2 advantage. NNU never looked back in the contest. The Nighthawks would go on to win the game by a final score of 13-5 to secure the biggest win in program history.

"Montana's a good program so anytime you can pick up a win against a program like that you have to walk away feeling pretty good," said coach Blanchard. "We knew coming into this game our defensive unit needed to step up and they did a great job of asserting themselves in this game. Now our focus is on winning our conference and getting to Nationals in Round Rock, Texas."

The Nighthawks had a balanced scoring attack throughout the evening. Keaton Bean, who is the PNCLL Conference leader in both points (52) and goals (42), punched in four goals on the way to picking up the win. The rest of the Nighthawks scoring included contributions from:

Caleb Johnson (Junior) - 3G
Bodie Jones (Freshman) – 1G 1A
Loy Howard (Senior) – 2G 2A
Josh Johnson (Junior) – 1G
Hayden Diggins (Senior) – 2G 2A

The Nighthawks will be on the road this weekend when they travel to Logan, Utah for a neutral site location for a matchup against the undefeated (6-0) Northern Arizona Lumberjacks.