MANSFIELD, Conn. – First-semester Roger Williams University transfer Quinn O'Connor (Glastonbury) scored a career-high five goals against his former school and classmate Brycen Kenney (Southington) broke the ninth and final tie at 5:31 of sudden-death overtime to lift the Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team to a 12-11 victory Wednesday afternoon at Rick McCarthy Field.

In a game where each team led by as many as two goals only one time each, Eastern (2-4) connected on its eighth and final shot of overtime to snap a five-game losing streak against Roger Williams (2-6) and even the all-time series at 5-5. The Warriors broke a three-game losing streak with their second one-goal home win this year.

Eastern had seven possessions in the first four-minute overtime with a chance to win the contest but had five of six shots sail high or wide of the cage, and turned the ball over once. Although RWU had only three possessions, it nearly won the game on its only shot when senior attack Ryan Phillips  hit the post 2:42 into overtime.
 

The Hawks had only one possession in the second overtime but their turnover led to Kennedy's game-winning goal with 2:29 left in the second four-minute overtime session.

On the winning play, Eastern lost possession to the left of the cage but Roger Williams couldn't gain control as the ball went out of bounds. Kennedy had possession on the re-start behind the net and carried the ball around the net to the right and cut in toward the crease while guarded by RWU defenseman Hunter Goodrow. Kennedy swung back to his left and as late help approached in the form of RWU's Chris Giorgi, beat goalie Max Kimmel with a right-handed shot to the upper-right part of the net from the left side just outside the crease to ignite a celebration.

Dating back to 2010, Eastern has now won its last four overtime games. The match was the first that extended into overtime in the ten-game series with RWU and only second one decided by a single goal (RWU winning at home in 2016 by an identical 12-11 score).

Beginning with the fourth quarter, Eastern sophomore faceoff David Harrold (Southington) won the team's final seven faceoffs, winning 15 of 26 in the match in helping the Warriors capture more than half of their faceoffs in a match for the first time this year.

First-year attackman Tim Lichack's (Clinton) only goal of the match with six minutes left in third quarter gave Eastern its only two-goal lead, but the Hawks bounced right back by scoring twice in the final two minutes of the quarter and once five minutes into the fourth – two of the goals coming on man-up opportunities – to take their final lead, 10-9.

O'Connor's eighth goal of the season tied the match with ten minutes left in regulation and his ninth goal of the year on sophomore midfielder Andrew Pendagast's (Southbury) first assist of the year pushed the Warriors into an 11-10 lead before graduate attack Jared Grier's  fourth goal of the match – his 16^th of the year – forced overtime with 2:31 left in regulation.

First-year midfielder Cedrick Rene (Norwalk) scored his first three career goals over the first 33 minutes, with sophomore attack Zacharie Appolon (Stamford) chipping in three assists. Harrold won eight ground balls in helping the Warriors to a +10 advantage in that department, with junior defenseman David Marciczkiewicz (Stamford) picking up five and junior long sticks Domenic Scarano (Berlin) and Andrew Golden (Somers) and junior defenseman Ryan Stocks (Longmeadow, MA) four each.

Grier led RWU with four goals and junior attack Noah Ravas  two but no other RWU player managed more than one. Roger Williams season scoring leader Tim Mullane, a graduate attackman, was limited to a goal and two assists on six shots.

Junior goalie Nick Collazo (Park Ridge, NJ) made nine saves for Eastern and freshman Max Kimmel stopped 13 shots for the Hawks. 

Eastern opens its Little East Conference season Saturday at noon.