CASTLETON, Vt. – The Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team won 12 of 15 faceoffs to improve its Little East Conference-leading success rate to .680 as the Warriors closed the regular season with an 11-2 conference victory over Castleton University Wednesday afternoon at Spartan Field.
 
The victory, Eastern's (6-5, 3-3 LEC) second straight after a four-game losing streak comes on the heels of a 2019 overtime loss to Castleton (0-10, 0-4 LEC) when it was outscored 6-2 over the final 17 minutes of regulation.
 
In its wins this year, Eastern has allowed an average of only 3.5 goals, with no team scoring more than six.
 
Eastern spotted the Spartans an early first goal Wednesday but shut out the hosts over the next 19 minutes in rolling up a 6-1 lead four minutes into the second quarter. Seniors Kyle Cardoza (Waterford) and Tyler Stein (Milford) combined for five of those goals and Stein set up two of them with assists. Freshman Scott Galbo (East Lyme) picked up seven ground balls, sophomore Domenic Scarano (Berlin) five and freshman faceoff man David Harrold (Southington) and Cardoza four each.
 
Graduate student Jack Farrell (Stratford) and senior John Funk (Southbury) combined in goal for the win. Farrell stopped ten shots to push his career won-loss record over .500 (15-14) and Funk made two saves.
 
The leader in faceoff percentage, Stein improved to .703 by winning nine of 11.
 
Eastern collected 40 shots and 39 ground balls and got shutdown defense from its man-down unit, which halted all five of Castleton's man-up opportunities to drop its opponent's season man-up scoring percentage under .200 to .180.
 
Eastern opens play in the Little East Conference playoffs Tuesday at a site and against an opponent to be named later.