The Lake Forest College men's hockey team hosted and defeated Saint Mary's University 8-0 in Friday night's season opener.

It was a fast start for the home team, which took the lead just 78 seconds into the contest on a score by senior captain Ben Perkins. He was assisted by two more seniors, defenseman Connor Scahill and forward Tyler Nielsen.

The Foresters added to their lead less than two-and-a-half minutes later when junior forward Jared Gerger redirected a shot from sophomore forward Justin Ross past the Cardinals' goaltender. Junior defenseman Connor Sullivan was also credited with an assist on the play.

Gerger set up Bella on the next goal with the latter blasting in a shot from the left circle at the 8:38 mark.

Scahill was responsible for three of the next four goals. He closed out the first period scoring with 2:11 on the clock and added two more scores in the second. It was the first season opening hat trick by a Forester since Jack Lewis accomplished the feat in 2016 and Scahill is the first defenseman on the team to score three times in a game in more than two decades.

Freshman defenseman Fabrizio Mazzarelli netted his first career goal early in the second and, after Scahill's final two tallies, senior forward Tyler Nielsen closed out the scoring late in the period.

Junior defenseman Connor Sullivan assisted on three of the four goals in the second period and Perkins, Bella, and Nielsen also finished with three points on the night.

Junior goaltender Bobby McCloskey made 21 saves on the evening, including nine in the final period, to earn his first career shutout.

It was the Lake Forest's largest scoring output in a season opener since the team defeated Milwaukee School of Engineering 9-3 to opener the 2000-01 campaign.

The Foresters will be back in action Saturday evening at 5:00 against Babson College, the 15th-ranked team in the nation.