MANSFIELD, Conn. – The road continues to be a source of frustration this year for the Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team, which dropped to 1-5 away from home Saturday with a 12-7 Little East Conference loss to Keene State College.

With the loss, Eastern (4-5, 2-1 Little East) falls out of a three-way tie for first in the conference. A winner of its third straight (conference) match, Keene State (6-4, 3-0 Little East) maintains a share of first place with Plymouth State University, which dumped visiting Salem State University Saturday.

Eastern trailed 9-2 midway through the second quarter and never got closer than four the rest of the way. The hosts scored seven consecutive goals over a span of 13 minutes to build it seven-goal lead before the Warriors answered with the final two goals of the third quarter and first of the fourth to close to within 9-5.

After Eastern junior Tim Reilly's (Hanover, MA) second goal of the match made it 9-5 with three minutes gone in the fourth quarter, Keene senior Rob Hart scored twice in a span of 1:39 to push the Owls' lead back to six, 11-5, with four minutes left.

Eastern junior goalie Blake Smaldone (Hamilton, MA) equaled his career high with 21 saves while Keene junior Dylan Florian stopped 13 shots.

 Eastern visits Massachusetts Dartmouth Wednesday at 7 p.m.