LEWISTON — The UNE men’s lacrosse team ran into its first stumbling block of the season last night against non-conference opponent Bates College.

Facing a 49-22 shot disadvantage as well as ball control troubles, the Nor’easters dropped to the Bobcats 18-3.

The loss moves the Nor’easters to a 1-2 record so far this season, all against non-conference foes.

“We just didn’t play our game,” UNE head coach Jon Hunt said. “We got run by and outplayed in every facet of the game. We didn’t come out and play like we are supposed to play. We like to play fast, we’re going to have turnovers, but that’s the way we’re going to play, and our looks weren’t there tonight. And [Bates] is a very good team. They outplayed us.”

Bates (3-0) took the first goal early in the first quarter when Bobcats attack Gary Guinta fired a shot past UNE goalie Nate Porter for the 1-0 lead.

UNE answered back only moments later when Tyler Thomas took a Luke DiFiore pass and scored a goal to even the score at 1-1.

Bates scored again minutes later, only to have the Nor’easters tie the score back at 2-2 on a Difiore goal.

From there, Bates took control of the game, keeping the pressure on the UNE side of the field. The Bobcats scored two more goals to take a 4-2 lead at the end of the quarter.

Bates doubled its goal total in the second quarter, heading into halftime with an 8-2 lead.

The Bobcats again doubled its total in the third, and added two more goals in the fourth for the 18-3 win.

The lone Nor’easter goal in the second half came from Thomas in the third quarter. Thomas finished with two goals and an assist, while DiFiore scored one goal and added two assists.

Hunt said the scoring has been spread out between the Nor’easter plays so far this season.

“We’re pretty spread out, we’re pretty balanced,” Hunt said. “We’ve had a couple of guys step up in every game, whether it’s four goals from Mike Woods in the first game to three goals from Dylan Thomas, we’re pretty spread out. I’d rather have 10 guys score 10 goals than one guy score 100 goals.”

Porter stopped 16 shots for UNE, and also led the team with seven ground balls.

Bates senior attack Nick Sampson lead the Bobcats with five goals.

The Nor’easters started the season on the right track with a 12-11 overtime victory over Lasell on March 3 before losing to Wheaton 12-10 on March 6.

Hunt said the Nor’easters have a mixture of both young talent and veteran leadership coming into the 2010 season.

“We’re a good team,” Hunt said. “We’re very young, but we have some good, young players. We have very good leadership this year, and we’re headed in the right direction. It’s just a building process.”

UNE will hit the field again on Friday, when it plays against the University of Southern Maine at Memorial Field in Portland. The Nor’easters plays its first TCCC conference game on March 20 against Anna Maria.

Hunt said UNE will have to keep grinding it out in games to win this season.

“We’ve got to keep the tempo up and keep working hard,” Hunt said.

Game time for Friday is set for 4 p.m.

— Contact Staff Writer Dave Dyer at 282-1535, Ext. 318.