DARTMOUTH, Mass. – Junior midfielder Caroline Stent (Weatogue) keyed a run of eight straight Eastern Connecticut State University goals that propelled it to a 21-9 Little East Conference victory over the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Saturday afternoon at Cressy Field.
 
Junior attack Jessica Pyrek-Bennett (Monroe) gave Eastern (8-5, 3-2 LEC) the lead for good  with 3:30 left in the first quarter and the Warriors added seven more in succession to move out to a 10-2 lead three minutes into the second quarter.
 
With its third straight conference win, Eastern enters the final week of the regular season locked in a three-way tie for third place in the Little East with the University of Southern Maine and Keene State College, with both of those opponents holding  tie-breaker by defeating Eastern during the season. Defending champion Western Connecticut State University won the battle of unbeatens Saturday, downing host Plymouth State University, 7-6, by scoring the final four goals.
 
Eastern looks for its first meaningful win against an LEC opponent since 2018 when it visits WestConn Tuesday and closes out Saturday by hosting Plymouth State. The Warriors are guaranteed to receive one of the six LEC playoff berth by virtue of wins over UMass Dartmouth and Rhode Island College. In 2018, the Warriors defeated LEC contender Keene State College twice at McCarthy Field, 14-13 in overtime in the regular-season and 17-15 in the LEC playoff semifinals.
 
Pyrek-Bennett, junior attack Shay Ventresca (Oakdale) and Stent combined for 14 goals and six assists against UMass Dartmouth (2-12, 1-4 LEC), which dropped its sixth straight and 27^th in the 31-game series. Stent had four goals and four assists, Pyrek-Bennett five goals and Ventresca five goals and two assists.
 
Stent won a career-high 12 draws – giving her 26 in the last three games – to move into a tie for third all-time with an LEC-high 83 draws this year, seven shy of the season record. In only two seasons, Stent has won 152 draws – eighth all-time. She needs two goals to become one of seven players in program history with as many as two 50-goal seasons. She ranks 14^th all-time in assists (36), 17^th in points (140) and tied for 19^th in goals (104). Ventresca needs four points for 100 in her career.
 
The game marked the return from injury of junior goalie Sarah Gallagher (South Windsor), who had missed four games after injuring herself April 6 in a 22-12 win at Fitchburg State University. First-year goalie Emma Alford (West Hartford) won her third match in five decisions, needing only one save and giving up only three goals in the first half before Gallagher stopped two shots over the final 30 minutes.