DANBURY, Conn. – After going winless the last ten times on its opponent's home field, the Eastern Connecticut State University women's soccer team made it two road wins in a row Saturday with a key 2-0 Little East Conference victory at Western Connecticut State University at the Westside Athletic Complex.

In a match which featured last year's LEC regular-season champion in Eastern (6-4-0, 3-0-0) and the 2010 LEC tournament titlist in Western (6-3-0, 2-1-0 Little East), the Warriors broke a scoreless duel with 17 minutes left and added an insurance goal inside the final three miutes to post a two-goal shutout win over the Colonials for the first time since a 3-0 home triumph over Western in the first meeting ever between the programs in 1994.

Ranked tenth in New England, Western had allowed only six goals all season behind   junior keeper Caitlin Avery, the LEC leader in goals-against average (0.34), and had posted four straight  shutouts against New England competition heading into Saturday's match.

Eastern junior keeper Mackenzie MacLeod (Northfield) needed only two saves behind a tight defense to record her third shutout in the last five starts and lower her GAA to 1.50.  Eastern's starting defense of seniors Amber Petrizzo (Plainville) and Sam Konopka (Hebron) and sophomore Megan Godwin (Manchester) held Western to just eight shots, only two of which reached MacLeod.

Sophomore midfielder Nicole Leonard (Rutherford, NJ) scored on her only shot (in just 25 minutes) off a cross from Konopka – burying a 12-yarder with one touch– to break a 73-minute stalemate. With a little less than three minutes left, LEC scoring leader Daniela Marchitto (Orange)  scored her team-leading eighth goal off a first career point from freshman back Whitney Mantel (Stamford). With Western pushing forward in an effort to gain the tying goal, Mantel drew a Western defender before finding a streaking Marchitto on the flank. Marchitto's hard shot caromed off a Western player and past Avery to all but assure the win.

While MacLeod was all but untested, Avery made two spectacular saves in the opening minutes of the match to preserve a scoreless half.

In its first ten matches in this series on Western's home field, Eastern was 0-8-2 before coming away with a 2-1 triumph in 2009. All eight of those losses had come either by one goal or in overtime.

Eastern extended its regular-season unbeaten streak in LEC play to 15 (13-0-2), last losing in overtime at Keene State College midway through the 2009 season.

The match was Western's first at home in three weeks while Eastern was playing its seventh match away from home in the last eight games.  The Warriors have won a season-best three in a row and four of five and are 3-1 in their last four road contests.

Eastern hosts Connecticut College Wednesday at 7 p.m at the Mansfield Outdoor Complex.