GORHAM, Maine – Since the Little East Conference expanded to an eight-team men's soccer league in 1997, four teams have run the table by winning all seven of their regular-season conference contests.

None, however, have done it by shutting out all seven conference opponents. After blanking the University of Southern Maine, 6-0, Saturday at Hannaford Field, Eastern Connecticut State University will have that opportunity next Saturday when it visits the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in the final regular-season match of the season.

In addition to posting its sixth shutout in six conference matches this year Saturday, Eastern (11-4-1, 6-0-0 Little East) clinched both the outright regular-season LEC title and the No. 1 seed and home field advantage in the four-team conference playoffs, which get underway with semifinal games Nov. 2.

Since the advent of LEC men's soccer play in 1989, Eastern has won three outright regular-season titles (1992, 2007 and 2011) and shared two (1991 and 2009). The Warriors have earned the No. 1 seed in the LEC tournament (which began in 1999) only once before, in 2007 when it went on to its first of two post-season crowns in four years under fifth-year head coach Greg DeVito.

Saturday, senior midfielder Sean Collins (Bristol) came off the bench to score two goals and dish out an assist, and junior forward Matt Furman (Montville) scored twice, and senior keeper Carl Appel (West Windsor, NJ)  made three saves for his fifth full shutout in six conference matches.  All of Eastern's wins this season have come by shutout.

The LEC leader in overall goals-against average and save percentage, Appel pulled into a share for the conference lead with his seventh overall full shutout this year. Furman, last year's LEC scoring leader, now shares the conference lead with nine goals.

Southern Maine (3-13-0, 2-4 Little East)  dropped its third straight match and is 0-8-1 against Eastern in the last nine meetings.

Junior midfielder Carl Stensland (Storrs) had a goal and picked up an assist on Collins' first goal for the Warriors.  Junior forward Cory Tobler (Portland) scored the final goal of the match off an assist from Collins. 

Stensland gave the Warriors the only goal they would need in the 14th minute, getting the ball at the top of the 18-yard box, taking a touch and putting a shot inside the left post for his second goal of the season.  Collins took a feed from Stensland in the 37th minute and deposited the ball into the USM net.

Collins and Furman scored less than a minute apart in the second half to push the lead to 4-0.  Collins cracked a 25-yard shot from the left side into the right side netting for his second goal of the day, and third of the season, in the 61st minute.  Furman scored less than a minute later collecting a loose ball in the middle and slipping a shot past Charette.

Through six conference games, Eastern has piled up a 16-0 goal differential. Thirteen different players have contributed a goal or assist. Furman has scored four goals, sophomore forward Tom Vear (Monson, MA) and Collins two goals and two assists. Appel has made 26 saves.

Since the LEC went to its present eight-team format, the least goals allowed by the conference champion in a seven-game conference season have been three, by Western Connecticut in 2002 and Keene State in 2005. Western was 6-1-0 and Keene 6-0-1. The least goals allowed by a conference team in 14 seasons of the present format was two by Rhode Island College in 2008, when the Anchormen finished second to Southern Maine with a 5-1-1 record (Eastern scored one of those goals in a 2-1 overtime road loss).

Plymouth State and Keene State are the only two institutions to have  won all seven of their LEC regular-season contests. Plymouth did it in consecutive seasons in 1997 and 1998 and Keene in 2001 and 2004.  In those four perfect seasons, Plymouth allowed the least number of goals in LEC play – four in both.

In five seasons under DeVito, Eastern is 26-4-4 in conference regular-season competition and, regardless of this Saturday's outcome, will never have lost more than one LEC match in a season. The club has gone unbeaten once in regular-season conference play, in 1991 when it finished 4-0-1 and shared the LEC regular-season title under former head coach Frantz Innocent.

Eastern, which defeated UMass Dartmouth, 1-0, in the 2009 LEC tournament final at the Mansfield Outdoor Complex, has recorded shutouts on the Corsairs' home field in three of the last four years. UMass has qualified for the 2011 conference playoffs, and if current seeds hold, would visit Eastern in the LEC semifinals Nov. 2

Eastern visits Becker College Tuesday at 6 p.m.

Southern Maine Sports Information contributed to this game account.