NEW LONDON -- The Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team  learned at least two things after Wednesday night's game against the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

The first was that perhaps the season-opening six-goal win over Gordon College four days earlier came against a team which will eventually prove to be several notches weaker than the one which battled Eastern for three quarters before losing in the 2015 season-opener. 

The second was that an inexperienced Eastern team – only nine returning letterwinners -- has a long road ahead of it if its hopes to make its annual pilgrimage to the Little East Conference championship game two months hence.

Wednesday, the Eastern (1-1) defense was stout and the offense opportunistic over the final minutes of the first half that prevented Coast Guard pulling away by the half. Unfortunately, the opening minutes of the second half proved disastrous as the Bears converted the first five faceoff wins into five shots and five unanswered goals in a span of just 4:16 as they rolled to an emphatic 18-5 non-conference victory at Cadet Memorial Stadium.

Only a third-year program, Coast Guard dominated every aspect of the game, among them faceoffs, time of possession, ground balls and shots in easing to an easy victory in the first meeting between the programs. 

At left: First-year sophomore attack Samuel Watson (14) celebrates one of his two first-half goals in Wednesday's match at Coast Guard. Watson scored his first career goal to tie the match at 1-1 late in the first quarter and added his second late in the first half which pulled the Warriors to within 4-3.

The Bears fleeced the Warriors at the faceoff X, which led directly to their dominance in the other three areas. Two Coast Guard faceoff midfielders combined to win 21 of 26 faceoffs against two opponents. That discrepancy led to CGA advantages in shots (56-29) and ground balls (36-24). 

Coast Guard threatened to pull away late in the first half when Jake Pope's goal made it 4-1 with 7:31 left. The defense was strong the rest of the half, however, and Eastern answered with two goals in a span of just over a minute that made it a one-goal game at the break.

After scoring the first five goals of the third quarter, Coast Guard finished with a 9-1 advantage in the quarter to take 13-4 lead into the final quarter.

Anthony Wyler and Pope each had five goals for Coast Guard, while junior midfielder Harrison Urda (Milford, NH) scored three goals and first-year sophomore attack Samuel Watson (Trumbull) totaled the first two goals of his Eastern career. Senior attack Shawn Tierney (Norwell, MA) had an assist. 

Junior goalie Chris Gorman (Shrewsbury, MA) made 13 saves and gave up 16 goals over the first 51 minutes while freshman Taylor Huta (Waterford) stopped two shots and allowed two goals over the final nine minutes in his debut.

All-LEC long-stick midfielder Trevor Ross (Stratford) led Eastern with five ground balls, senior defenseman Nick Terry (Southington) collecting four.

Eastern visits Farmingdale State College Saturday at 2:30 p.m. in a non-conference match.