LEWISTON – A 22-year-old Bates College senior and lacrosse team member died after a fight involving two groups early Sunday, said state police, who called the student’s death a homicide.

As Morgan McDuffee and about 10 friends walked along Main Street toward McDuffee’s apartment between 2 and 3 a.m., they encountered a group of about 10 local youths, spokesman Stephen McCausland of the state Public Safety Department said. A fight broke out and McDuffee was mortally injured.

“At this point we’re not saying how, but we know,” McCausland said.

But Celeste Branham, the school’s dean of students, told reporters McDuffee had been stabbed.

There was no immediate word of arrests or suspects.

McDuffee was taken by ambulance to Central Maine Medical Center a short distance away in Lewiston, where he died.

A witness, Henry Paladino, told WCSH-TV he heard commotion during the confrontation at about 2:45 a.m. before he was told, “Call an ambulance, call an ambulance. Please, God Almighty, call an ambulance.”

McDuffee attended high school in Lexington, Mass. He was the captain of the football and lacrosse teams and graduated in 1997. “He was a kid who had tremendous character, loyalty and compassion,” Dave Lautman, a lacrosse coach at Lexington High, told WFXT-TV.

High school classmate Billy Wright described McDuffee as an accomplished athlete and individual.

“People definitely looked up to him. He was a great role model,” Wright said.

McDuffee was a member of this spring’s lacrosse team at Bates.

A statement from the school said: “Our attention now is with Morgan’s family and friends. We are deeply saddened and grieve at this terrible loss of a member of the college community.” Grief counselors were available Sunday on campus, said spokesman Bryan McNulty.