ONEONTA, N.Y. – Junior goalie Blake Smaldone (Hamilton, MA) made seven of his 12 saves during a span of 27 shutout minutes that lifted the Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team to a 9-6 non-conference victory over Hartwick College Wednesday afternoon at Wright Stadium.

The win is the first for Eastern (1-2) and first in the collegiate head coaching career of first-year Eastern head coach Brian Tilley, who had spent the previous five seasons as an assistant at the University of Hartford. The match was the season-opener for Hartwick, coming off last year's 3-11 season which included 0-7 in the competitive Empire 8.

In the first meeting ever between the programs, Eastern erased an early 3-1 deficit but holding the Hawks without a goal for 27 minutes. Hartwick took 12 shots in that stretch, with Smaldone stopping seven of them on the way to evening his season record at 1-1.

While Eastern's defense kept the hosts off the board through the final ten minutes of the second quarter, the entire third and first two minutes of the fourth, Eastern scored six in a row to go from two down to four up with a minute left in the third quarter.

Senior Steven Nixon (Foxborough, MA) and juniors Shawn Tierney (Norwell, MA) and Liam Murphy (Dover, NH) all contributed their first goals of the season, Tierney's also the first of his career. Nixon , senior Zach Thresher (Somers) and junior Michael Dellanno (Wakefield, MA) all scored three times for Eastern. Senior Travis Tiger (Ridgefield) led the Warriors with seven ground balls and four caused turnovers.

After commiting 18 penalties which led to 18 extra-man opportunities in their first two losses, Eastern allowed only three extra-man tries against Hawks, and killed each of them.

Eastern hosts New England College Monday at 1 p.m.