MANSFIELD, CT – Eastern Connecticut State University men's soccer (7-5-0, 3-1-0 LEC) closed out their three-game homestand with a Little East Conference matchup against Castleton University (3-9-0, 1-3-0 LEC) at Thomas Nevers Field on Saturday. The Warriors offense came out fast and furious with three first half goals en route to a 6-1 win over the Spartans to finish the homestand with a 2-1-0 record.
 
    For the majority of the first half, Eastern would control the ball in the offensive zone and in only the 2^nd minute of play had an opportunity to get on the board. However, the Castleton defense was able to clear junior midfielder Andres Mayuri's (West Hartford) corner kick and shut down the chance. The Warrior offense would continue to be relentless and in the 9^th minute it would be junior forward Ryan Sirois (Tolland) who put Eastern ahead after first-year midfielder Grady Kelly (Granby) found first-year forward Sean Cafferty (Clinton) with a cross pass. Cafferty would deflect the pass to Sirois who buried it into the left side of the net for his fourth goal of the season.
 
    The Warriors would continue to produce quality scoring chances as the first half wore on. The most notable came in the 28^th minute when passes from junior midfielder Larson Richards (Mansfield) and Cafferty led to another Sirois shot from the right side of the goal. Sirois would be turned away by junior goalkeeper Andres Soto-Burgos who made a sliding stop to prevent the Tolland native from earning his second goal of the afternoon. Minutes later, Soto-Burgos would make magic happen again on a Sirois breakaway to keep the Spartan's deficit at one.
 
    But Eastern would break through with two goals in the final 10 minutes of the half. The first would come off a deflection by a Castleton defender and found Sirois who passed it off to senior defender Emmanuel Agyemang (East Hartford) in front of the net for his second goal of the season in the 36^th minute. As time wound down, another deflection by the Spartan defense led to Mayuri earning his fourth goal of the season in the 44^th minute to extend the Warrior lead to three going into the half. In addition to the 3-0 lead, Eastern outshot Castleton 16-2 (11-0 in shots on goal) and carried a 6-0 edge in corner kicks.
 
    The Warriors wasted no time extending their lead in the second half as it would be senior defender David Noel (Armonk, NY) getting his first career goal in four seasons of wearing an Eastern uniform after being set up by passes from sophomore defender Jaren Haddock (South Windsor) and senior midfielder Will Toomey (Willington) in the 49^th minute.
 
    A short while later in the 54^th minute, it would be junior defender Jared Caroline's (South Windsor) turn to net his first goal of the 2021 season which would also be his second career goal in three seasons with the Warriors. Caroline's goal would come after a Mayuri corner kick found the head of Richard's who fired it off a Castleton defender and the ball ended up on his foot where an open net awaited to make it 5-0 in favor of Eastern.
 
    Junior forward Ryan Jamieson (Ellington) scored his fourth goal of the year in the 70^th minute when a pass from Kelly and senior defender Jackson Trierweiler (Framingham, MA) was broken up by the Spartan defense before Jamieson cleaned up the loose ball to put the Warriors ahead by six goals with just over 20 minutes remaining in regulation.
 
    First-year defender Santiago Moraes scored his first goal of the season for Castleton after first-year defender Brecken Shea headed the ball to himself and worked around a few Eastern defenders to find Moraes one-on-one with first-year goalkeeper Nathan Yeich (Willington), who relieved starting sophomore goalkeeper Dylan Pallanck (Willington), and won the battle to cut the Warrior lead down to five.
 
    In just under 70 minutes of action, Pallanck made one save on the only shot he faced which came in a one-on-one situation with first-year forward Adolphe Alfani on the left side of the goal. The Willington native was able to use his left leg to clear the ball and preserve the shutout during his time in net. Over the final 20 minutes, Yeich would make three saves on the four Castleton shots he faced as the Warriors closed the afternoon with a 6-1 victory to move to 3-1-0 in conference play.
 
    Jaren Haddock made his first career start for the Warriors against Castleton University on Saturday. Coming into the game, Haddock played 117 minutes across three games off the bench and had one shot on goal. On Saturday, the defender from South Windsor earned his first career point and assist on the fourth Eastern goal while playing a career-high and team-leading 80 minutes in the match.
 
    With four conference matchups remaining, the Warriors currently sit in third place in the Little East Conference standings. They trail Western Connecticut State University (4-1-0 in LEC play) and Rhode Island College (4-1-0 in LEC play) by three points while also having a game in hand on WestConn. Western Connecticut owns the head-to-head tiebreaker against Eastern after defeating them in double overtime on September 29^th
 
    The Warriors will kick off a three-game road trip starting with a pivotal Little East Conference matchup with Rhode Island College at Alumni Field on Wednesday, October 13^th at 4:00 PM with the tiebreaker and first place in the Little East Conference on the line.