MANSFIELD, Conn. – Defending Little East Conference men's lacrosse champion University of Massachusetts Boston limited Eastern Connecticut State University to one goal through the first 33 minutes on the way to its 14^th straight conference regular-season win, 22-6, Saturday afternoon at Rick McCarthy Field.
 
The LEC's top-ranked offensive team, UMass (13-2, 7-0 LEC) won its fifth straight game and is assured of its second straight conference regular-season title and looks for its second straight perfect LEC season Tuesday when it hosts Castleton University (2-12, 2-4 LEC). Eastern (5-9, 3-4 LEC) looks to nail down one of six LEC playoff spots Friday when it visits the University of Southern Maine (3-8, 1-5 LEC) in its regular-season finale.
 
Eastern gave up a season-high 70 shots against UMB, with the senior duo of midfielder Gavin Admirand and attack Michael Claflin – ranked 2-3 in the LEC in points – combining for nine goals and eight assists. A returning first-team All-LEC player, Admirand had six goals and five assists and Claflin three goals and three assists.
 
Despite the final goal differential, Eastern more-or-less matched UMass Boston in the ground ball and faceoff departments. The Warriors totaled 40 ground balls – their third-highest mark of the year – and won nearly half of the faceoffs. First-year faceoff man Rick O'Neal (East Hartford) continued his recent success, winning 14 of 29 at the X – including the first five – and picking up ten ground balls. In the last three games, O'Neal has won 55 percent of his 64 tries and has owned 22 ground balls.
 
Junior defenseman Ryan Stocks (Longmeadow, MA) collected five ground balls, sophomore attack Zacharie Appolon (Stamford) and sophomore midfielder Ben Duquene (Stamford) each picking up four.
 
Junior midfielder Jason McNeany won eight of 15 faceoffs and led UMB with six ground balls, with 19 different players totaling at least one for UMB.
 
Junior goalie Trevor Koppy made seven saves – six in the first quarter –and departed at halftime on the long end of an 11-1 lead to improve his record to 11-1. In his fifth straight start, first-year goalie Sam Davies (Newington)  made 13 saves – one shy of his game high -- in the first half before junior Nick Collazo (Park Ridge, NJ) made seven saves in the second half. The 20 combined saves equal the most saves in a game this year by Eastern.