MANSFIELD, Conn. – The Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team scored three extra-man goals in a span of less than four minutes in the third quarter and the defense forced 24 turnovers in a home-opening 14-6 non-conference win over Johnson & Wales University Sunday afternoon at Rick McCarthy Field.

Trailing 2-1 in the first quarter, Eastern (2-0) ran off six consecutive goals and 11 of the next 12 in defeating Johnson & Wales (1-3) for the third straight year after a two-goal loss in the first match of the series in 2017.

Junior midfielder Kyle Cardoza (Waterford) scored his first five goals of the season en route to a personal career-best, and  junior midfielder Tyler Stein (Milford) won ten of 14 faceoffs for Eastern, which capitalized on ten extra-man opportunities by converting half of them.

After junior attack Jake Liebowitz (Trumbull) scored his second man-up goal of the match five minutes into the third quarter, senior attack Wes Thompson (Watertown) and freshman midfielder T.J. Hebert (Berlin) scored extra-man goals 69 seconds apart after a Wildcat player was assessed a three-minute unreleasable penalty for an illegal body check, and ejected. Those man-up goals finished off the run of five straight scoring strikes which launched Eastern into a 12-3 with 21 minutes left in the match.

Defensively, the Warriors limited the Wildcats' top two goal-scorers to a combined four goals.

Eastern doubled the Wildcats' shot total (49-24), killed off four of five penalties, and won the ground ball war, 39-23.

In addition to Cardoza, multiple goal-scorers for Eastern included Liebowitz and freshmen T.J. Hebert (Berlin) and Shane Haggerty (Stamford). Liewbowitz had three goals and two assists, Hebert  three goals and an assist on four shots and won 2-of-4 faceoffs, while Haggerty contributed three assists and two goals.

At left: Jack Lombardo (Photo by Sara Pisanelli)

Sophomore long-stick Jack Lombardo (Berlin) won eight ground balls and caused two turnovers, with Cardoza, junior defenseman Tyler Koppy (Attleboro, MA) and first-year sophomore Christion Swan (Guilford) all collecting four ground balls. Koppy also caused two turnovers, as did freshman defenseman Ryan Stocks (Longmeadow, MA).

Senior Jack Farrell (Stratford) won his second start of the year, making seven saves and leaving with a 12-4 lead late in the third quarter.

Playing its fourth straight road game, Johnson & Wales got three goals from sophomore attack Tyler Drago, who also recorded seven of his team's shots. No other player had more than one. Sophomore defenseman Alex Padula  had four ground balls and forced four turnovers, while freshman defenseman Mike Catuosco led the Wildcats with six ground balls and was 1-of-2 from the faceoff X.

Eastern started four freshmen: attackmen  Jonathan Bernier (Somers) and Steven Moller  (Ellington), as well as Stocks and defenseman/long stick Domenic Scarano (Berlin).

Eastern hosts Lasell College Wednesday at 6 p.m. in a non-conference match.