GORHAM, Maine -- The Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team used a balanced offense to defeat the University of Southern Maine, 15-1, in the Little East Conference men's lacrosse opener for both teams Saturday afternoon at Hannaford Field.

At right: Cody Carbone got things going early in the first quarter Saturday, and was among 13 Eastern players to contribute a goal or assist.

The win is the third in the last four games for  Eastern (5-4), which has lost three matches this year to nationally-ranked opponents. The Huskies dropped to 1-6 with their 13th straight loss in this series with the Warriors

Senior two-time All-America Mike Devine (Cheshire) and first-year sophomore transfers Tim Reilly (Hanover, MA) and Nick Carisio (Cheshire) had three goals apiece for the Warriors, who got a goal or assist from 13 different players.  Devine and Reilly each also picked up an assist for a four-point game.

Sophomore Blake Smaldone (Hamilton, MA) started in goal and picked up his tenth collegiate win, needing just one save over the first 40 minutes to drop his goals-against average a full point to 8.39.  Sophomore Brendan Gillotti (Danbury), junior Richard Squires (Norwalk) and rookie Demetri Vernadakis (Columbia) all took a turn manning the Warrior cage over the final 20 minutes. The appearance was the first for Vernadakis, who made two saves over the final four minutes.

Senior Dylan Kenneyhad the Huskies lone goal.  Freshman Seth Wing picked up the assist.  Sophomore goalie Ryan Jurgelevich made 17 saves in a losing effort.

The Warriors displayed a patient offense to score the game's first nine goals.  Sophomore Cody Carbone (North Reading, MA) opened the scoring three minutes into the first quarter.  Devine tacked on two goals to increase the Warriors lead to 3-0, and Reilly netted his first with 1:29 to go to make it 4-0 after one quarter.

Devine beat Jurgelevich for his third goal of the day early in the second quarter.  Reilly followed with two more scores to make it 7-0.  Junior Chris Barnett (Wilton) closed out the first-half scoring 1:32 before halftime.

Rookie attack Richie Miller (Weston) opened the third quarter with the Warriors' ninth goal.  The marker came just seven seconds into the quarter as a man-up situation was expiring.

Kenney got the Huskies on the board at 9:32 with a man-up goal from up top after taking a pass from Wing.

Carisio scored three times before the end of the quarter as the Warriors outscored the Huskies 6-1 for the period increasing the margin to 14-1. Freshman attack Chris Trasacco (New Haven) recorded his first collegiate goal five minutes into the fourth quarter to round out the scoring.

Eastern out shot USM 49-17 and won the battle for ground balls 31-19.  Eastern also converted three of six man-up situations to raise its season percentage to .311 (14x45).  In his most successful outing of the year, first-year sophomore faceoff man Tyler Vallie (Orange) won 11 of 12 draws and scooped up a game-high eight ground balls.

Eastern Connecticut visits the University of Massachusetts Boston in Little East Conference play Saturday at1 p.m.