GENESEO, N.Y. - SUNY Geneseo junior forward Stephen Collins scored three goals for his first hat-trick of the season to lead the No. 12/13 Knights past visiting Franklin Pierce, 6-2, Saturday. Collins has scored seven goals in Geneseo's last three games.

Collins netted two tallies as Geneseo (10-3-3) opened up a 4-0 first-period lead. He opened the scoring at 14:42 off a nice feed from junior defenseman Matt Solomon, who had intercepted a Raven pass in the neutral zone. Seventeen seconds later, senior forward AJ Sgaraglio slipped a shot inside the right post off Franklin Pierce senior goalie Kyle Moran's pads for the two-goal advantage.

Collins scored his second goal off a shot from just outside the crease into the right side of the net with 2:11 on the clock. Geneseo then went on the power play following a delayed Ravens' tripping penalty before junior forward Jack Ceglarski stuffed a shot under Moran's pads 37 seconds later four the four-goal lead.

Franklin Pierce notched the lone goal of the second period after sophomore forward Jonathan Haun notched a power play tally off a face-off win to make it a three-goal game.

With 13:51 showing on the third period clock, junior forward Connor Anthoine collected a rebound off Moran's pads and put home Geneseo's fifth goal to restore the four-goal cushion. Franklin Pierce junior defenseman Dan Gibbons notched a short-handed goal on a short wrist shot into the upper left corner of the Knights' goal with 7:01 remaining before Collins later made a nice move to split to Raven defenders and score to complete the hat-trick with 1:02 remaining in the game.

Junior goalie Matt Leon was credited with 25 saves to earn his first victory of the season while Geneseo built a 45-27 advantage in shots on goal for the game.

The Knights return to action on Friday (Jan. 22) with a trip to Oswego for a 7:00 p.m. face-off before returning home on Saturday (Jan. 23) to take on Cortland at 7:00 p.m.