NEW HAMPTON, N.H. – The Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team shut out Plymouth State University over the final 18 minutes en route to a 12-6 victory Friday night at New Hampton School that gives the Warriors a share of second place and a first-round bye in the upcoming Little East Conference playoffs.

Eastern (7-6, 5-2 Little East) pulled even with Plymouth (11-3, 5-2 Little East) in the final conference standings and the Warriors gain the No. 2 playoff seed by virtue of the victory.

Junior goalie Blake Smaldone (Hamilton, MA) – the LEC leader in saves per game – stopped 11 shots and the Warriors' man-down unit allowed only one goal on Plymouth's ten extra-man tries. Eastern capitalized for five extra-man goals on seven tries.

Senior Dean Accomando (Monroe) and junior Tim Reilly (Hanover, MA) led Eastern with three goals each, with freshman Dane Heckmann (Brookfield) chipping in two, senior Zach Thresher (Somers) adding a goal and three assists and senior Matthew Garcia (Somers) a goal and two assists. All of Accomando's strikes were on the man-advantage as were two of Reilly's, who had 15 goals in the team's final three straight regular-season conference wins.

Eastern opens the Little East playoffs Thursday by hosting a semifinal round match against the winner of a Tuesday first-round match between No. 3 Plymouth and the No. 6 seed which will be determined Saturday.