Box Score MANSFIELD, Conn. – Eastern Connecticut State University senior men's lacrosse goalie Blake Smaldone (Hyde School, CT/Hamilton, MA) tied the program record with 25 saves – ten coming in the fourth quarter – to spark the Warriors to a 10-8 non-conference victory over Wheaton College (MA) Wednesday afternoon at the Mansfield Outdoor Complex.
Playing its seventh match this year decided by three or less goals (sixth straight), Eastern (4-4) reaches the .500 mark with its third straight victory. The Warriors won for the first time at home this year in defeating Wheaton (4-4) for the 12th time in this 15-game series.
The Warriors trailed only once in the game by one goal, but answered with three consecutive goals to take the lead for good, 7-5, with just over a minute left in the third quarter. Three times, the Lyons cut the gap to one, the final time on junior attack Devin Higgins' tenth goal of the season with five minutes left.
Wheaton gained possession on a faceoff violation with a chance to tie the match, but Smaldone made consecutive saves on shots by sophomore attack Scott Whear (Duxbury, MA) and freshman midfielder Josh Talanian. The Warriors possessed the ball for two minutes, sending a pair of shots wide and having senior goalie Ryan Clair make his 17th and final save before senior attack Tim Reilly (Hanover, MA) scored his 13th goal of the season (tying him for the team lead) after picking up a missed shot behind the cage with two minutes left to restore the two-goal advantage.
Smaldone preserved the two-goal lead in the final two minutes by making two of his ten fourth-quarter saves. The 20-save match was the sixth in the career of Smaldone, who broke his personal record of 22 set in the second game of the season in a 14-8 loss to Oneonta.
Smaldone tied the game save record set by Kyle Savage against RIT in 2007.
Junior faceoff specialist Jesse Schulze (Croton-on-Hudson, NY) won 15 of 21 faceoffs for Eastern, including all five in the first quarter when Eastern took a 3-1 lead after 15 minutes.
Senior midfielder Dan Vasquez (Newington) led Eastern with three goals and an assist, Reilly scoring twice and assisting twice and sophomore attack David Borovsky (Burlington) adding two goals.
Junior midfielder Ryan Gjerset led the Lyons with two goals and two assists.
Eastern opens its Little East Conference season Saturday at 7 p.m. against the University of Southern Maine.
