As the remnants of Hurricane Ida descended upon Rick McCarthy Field at the Mansfield Outdoor Complex, the Eastern Connecticut State Warriors Men's Soccer team took the field to face off against the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Trailblazers (MCLA) in their 2021-2022 season opener. It was the first matchup between the two New England-based squads in which the Warriors recorded a dominant 6-0 victory.

From the start, the Warriors (1-0-0) took control of the possession game as they would not allow Mass College (0-1-0) to work the ball past midfield until the 5th minute. Eastern stayed on the offensive attack early and often as they recorded 7 shots on goal (14 total shots) against Mass College junior goalkeeper Sam Edge, who made 13 saves on the day, before junior forward Ryan Sirois (Tolland) broke through in the 24th minute on a pass from senior midfielder Will Toomey (Willington) to put the Warriors out in front. Sirois would add another goal just under nine minutes later when freshman midfielder Walter Scudder (Unionville) found the junior in front of the net to extend the Warrior lead to two. The Tolland native would finish the afternoon with four shots on goal (6 total) and two goals in 54 minutes of play in the opener.

Will Toomey (Willington) and junior midfielder Marcus Blair (Norwalk) added a goal a piece as the first half wound down with sophomore forward Caleb Ennin (East Hartford) recording an assist on the Toomey goal in the 35th minute while Scudder recorded his second assist of the game along with senior forward Emmanuel Agyemang (East Hartford) earning his first assist of the season on the Blair goal in the 38th minute. Eastern would head into the locker room at halftime with a 4-0 lead having outshot the Trailblazers 25-2 (9-1 in shots on goal), amassing 11 corner kicks, and hold Mass College to under 3 minutes of possession time in the offensive zone.

As the rain slowed down, the two teams continued to battle it out for 45 minutes in which the Warriors maintained control of the matchup. Eastern's defense did not allow Mass College to record a shot on goal in the second half while an own goal by the Trailblazers and unassisted goal by Ennin would put the Warriors ahead 6-0. The offense finished the day outshooting Mass College 37-2 (13-1 in shots on goal) en route to the 6-0 win by the Warriors in their season opener at home.

Sophomore Dylan Pallanck (Willington) earned his first win of the 2021 campaign in net for the Warriors stopping the only shot he faced in the first half of the game before freshman goalkeeper Nathan Yeich (Willington) saw some action on the field in the closing 10 minutes of the game.

The Warriors will head to Pennsylvania for their next two games to take on Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, PA on Saturday at 3:00 PM before taking on Messiah College on Monday in Grantham, PA at 6:00 PM.

Eastern will return home to play their first regular season game since 2018 at Thomas Nevers Field when they take on the Worcester State University Lancers on September 11th at 1:00 PM.