Box Score MANSFIELD, Conn. -- Making his first start since the opening match of the year, junior Brendan Gillotti (Danbury) made a career-high 21 saves as the second-seeded Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team advanced to the championship game of the Little East Conference playoffs for the 14th time in 15 seasosn with a 13-9 win over third-seeded Plymouth State University Thursday night at the Mansfield Outdoor Complex.
Gillotti, taking over in net for junior starter Blake Smaldone (Hamilton, MA) – who missed the match due to academic obligations – never allowed Plymouth (12-4) to score as many as three consecutive goals. After the Panthers scored the final two goals of the third quarter to cut Eastern's (8-6) lead to one, 9-8, Gillotti kept the visitors off the board for the first ten minutes of the fourth quarter, as Eastern outscored Plymouth, 4-1, over the final 11 minutes.
By defeating Plymouth for the tenth straight time since being eliminated by the Panthers in overtime in the 2008 LEC semifinals in Mansfield, Eastern will face top-seeded and host Keene State College in Saturday's championship match at a time not yet announced. Keene defeated fifth-seeded Western Connecticut Thursday in a semifinal match, 17-7. The Warriors and Owls will be meeting the final for the seventh straight time, the clubs splitting the last six. Eastern has won eight LEC titles, Keene five.
Against Plymouth, junior attack Tim Reilly (Hanover, MA) led Eastern with five goals -- giving him 20 goals in the last four matches after managing only 13 in the first nine contests of the year. Senior defenseman Travis Tiger (Ridgefield) added five ground balls and four caused turnovers. Junior midfielder Jesse Schulze (Croton-on-Hudson, NY) won nine of 14 faceoffs.
Eastern trailed only once in the match – by a goal with three minutes left in the first quarter – and took control of the momentum in the third quarter when it scored three times in two minutes to break the final tie and move out to a 9-6 lead.
Freshman midfielder Kyle Stockman won eight of 16 faceoffs for Plymouth and sophomore midfielder Colin Claflin and senior midfielder Andy Ripley each picking up four ground balls. Senior goalie Chris St. George made nine saves for Plymouth, which outshot Eastern 44-34 and forced 20 turnovers.
During the year Plymouth had won ten straight matches until dropping 21-9 decisions at Keene State April 21 and 12-6 to Eastern on the final day of the regular season six days ago to finish in a tie for second place in the LEC with Eastern. Plymouth advanced to Thursday's semifinal with an 11-4 win over visiting No. 6 seed Salem State University Tuesday.
