LEWISTON — Bates College found efficiency on offense Saturday afternoon as four Bobcats tallied hat-tricks to defeat Hamilton College 17-9.

Matt Chlastawa scored four goals, while Curtis Knapton, Brendan Mullally and Matt Kelleher tacked on three goals each to help Bates run away from Hamilton.

In the first quarter, Hamilton handled the ball for the majority of the 15-minute period. While the Continentals held a lot of the possession, when Bates found a loose ball or created a turnover the Bobcats were quick to pounce.

“I thought their face off guys and their wings played really well so that’s sort of how the time of possession went,” Bates coach Peter Lasagna said. “I thought we were very efficient but I thought we went some really long stretches without seeing the ball which makes us a little anxious and maybe we force some things.”

Bates jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first two minutes of the game with the second coming from Mullally on a behind-the-back shot in front of net. Hamilton tied the game back up with two goals 23-seconds apart before Sean Clark received a Chlastawa pass to score.

On top of his four goals, Chalstawa assisted on four other goals as well.

“They were slow to slide at times and a couple of those were on man-up,” Chalstawa said. “A lot of those looks were what we always see in practice. We had a whole week to prepare and there weren’t that many surprised on the offensive or defensive ends. Offensively we had a lot of off-ball cutters which definitely helped me feeding and stuff like that. Sometimes you shoot and sometimes it falls and sometimes it doesn’t.”

Hanging on to a 5-4 lead in the second quarter, Bates turned to its goalie Rob Strain. Strain made all sorts of saves from stick saves to shots saved in his net, to using his body to stop shots. Bates used the stellar performance to go up 8-5 at halftime.

“We have two phenomenal goalies that can both start and we’ve been starting two for most of the year,” Lasagna said. “We felt like Rob stepped up his level of play and he’s just been practicing great. We thought it was time to give Rob a full game and he made us look smart.”

Strain made 22 saves Saturday and his stellar performance gave his offense the chance to relax and play their game.

“We definitely play off each other,’ Chalstawa said. “Whenever there is a big stop then the offense is super excited. Him on the clear as well is lights out, as well. Whenever he makes a stop you’re very comfortable with him on the ball and he’s one of the best athletes on the team so we’re not afraid of him to run it all the way down the field if he has to.”

Chalstawa scored with 2:43 remaining in the first half by sprinting around the net from behind, faking a couple of shots before burying a goal to go up 8-4. Hamilton scored its only goal of the quarter from the stick of Ben Gardner with 22 seconds left.

The third quarter was dominated, again, by Chalstawa who scored three goals, the third with a second left in the period. Mullally also scored twice in the quarter.

“I thought Matt Chlastawa had a nice day distributing and scoring,” Lasagna said. “I thought Matt Kelleher, a senior we put out on the attack, had a really nice day as well. That’s how we play, we distribute the ball, we share the ball. We preach that we don’t care who scores, just care that we scored.”

Strain was strong again in the third quarter, giving up just one goal to Chad Morse, one of three he scored on the day.

Hamilton was able to score three times in the fourth but Bates found the back of the net four times, holding off the Continentals.

Knapton and Kelleher scored back-to-back goals at the start of the quarter after Hamilton’s Henry Hill scored just-over a minute into the quarter. Even with a 15-7 lead at that point, Bates continued to accelerate when on offense, speeding up its offense as much as possible.

“We’ve always tried to run a run-and-gun style, we’ve always tried to have that,” Chlastawa said. “Just to try to see if other teams can keep up with us. We know that early offense is super productive when you practice it and when you’re good at it. We practice it all the time so it’s kind of our bread and butter. If teams can run with us then they can run with us, but so far when we get our middies out early after a big stop in net then it makes everyone’s life easier.”

Morse scored twice in the final quarter to try to breathe some life into his squad, but the deficit was too large. Strain made some more saves in the fourth when it mattered, including the final shot as time ran out.