CASTLETON, Vt. – Freshmen Joseph Lopez (Vernon) and Caleb Ennin (East Hartford) scored their first career goals and sophomore Ryan Sirois (Tolland) contributed his sixth career goal and also had an assist as the Eastern Connecticut State University men's soccer team closed out an abbreviated spring season with a 3-0 Little East Conference victory over Castleton University Friday night at Dave Wolk Stadium.
 
In addition to playing four scrimmages against outside competition this spring, Eastern (1-1-0, 1-1-0 LEC) split a pair of conference matches, evening its LEC spring record Friday against Castleton (0-4-0, 0-2-0 LEC) after dropping a 1-0 LEC home decision to Rhode Island College April 3 at Rick McCarthy Field. The Warriors were coming off a 3-0 victory over Plymouth State University in an LEC scrimmage Tuesday at Thomas Nevers Field.
 
Eastern improved to 7-0-0 all-time against Castleton, shutting out the Spartans for the fourth straight time and fifth time in the series, dating back to a 3-0 victory in the 1968 NAIA New England Tournament on the way to a national tournament berth.
 
Freshman keeper Dylan Pallanck (Willington) won his first college decision in his second start, saving four balls and getting offensive relief when Lopez (24^th minute) and Sirois (72^nd minute) staked him to a 2-0 lead, and Ennin sealed the win with an insurance goal with 2:16 remaining.
 
With the Warriors controlling the pace of play, Lopez put a rocket from outside the 18-yard box past a diving Castleton keeper Alex Fernald to give the Warriors the early lead.
  
As the Spartans continued to find ways to even the scoring, the Warriors broke away and doubled the lead in the 72nd minute. After the Spartans failed to clear,  Sirois sent a curling right-footed shot from outside the 18-yard box that beat goalie Andres Soto-Burgos, extending the Warriors' lead.
 
Ennin's first career goal came when he blasted a low shot past a diving Soto-Burgos.
 
Eastern's defense, which included senior starters David Noel (Armonk, NY) and All-New England back Emmanuel Agyemang (East Hartford) and sophomore Jared Caroline (South Windsor), bottled up the Spartans' offense, allowing only five shots, four of which Pallanck saved.
 
Of the 13 players to see action, all except starting senior forward Danny Shayler (Avon) are expected to return. In his final game, Shayler 85 minutes, putting one of his three shots on net. Shayler finished his career having started both matches this year and having appeared in 53 in his four seasons. He started ten matches in his career and had four goals and four assists in an average of 34.3 minutes.