GORHAM, Me. – The Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team held the University of Southern Maine to four goals through the first 47 minutes in defeating the Huskies for the 22^nd consecutive time in the series, 14-9, in the Little East Conference and regular-season finale for both teams Friday afternoon.
 
Already assured of the No. 5 seed in the six-team LEC playoffs prior to Friday, Eastern (6-9, 4-4 LEC) visits fourth-seeded Massachusetts Maritime Academy for the second time in less than two weeks Tuesday at 7 p.m. in a first-round match. Southern Maine (3-10, 1-7 LEC) did not qualify for the playoff and ends its season having lost eight of its final nine.
 
Eastern, which won exactly half of its LEC regular-season games for the third straight (non-Covid) season, looks for its first LEC tournament win since splitting two matches and reaching the LEC final in 2018. In a 15-10 LEC regular-season loss to Massachusetts Maritime (7-8, 5-3 LEC) April 20, Eastern led only once midway through the first quarter in a penalty-plagued match which featured 17 penalties. Mass Maritime won four of its final five LEC contests to earn the first-round home game to finish a game up on Eastern (the Bucs also held the tie-breaker).
 
Against Southern Maine, Eastern outshot the Huskies nearly 2-to-1, had a +9 edge in ground balls, and won 14 of 26 faceoffs. First-year players Brycen Kennedy (Southington)  had five goals and two assists and sophomore Zacharie Appolon (Stamford) two goals and five assists. In his third straight start, first-year faceoff man Rick O'Neal (East Hartford) won 11 of 19 faceoffs, giving him 37 wins on 73 attempts in those starts for a .506 winning percentage.
 
O'Neal matched junior defenseman Ryan Stocks (Longmeadow, MA) with six ground balls, with Kennedy, junior LSM Domenic Scarano (Berlin) and first-year midfielder Oliver Searle (Waterford) all being credited with four.
 
In his first start since April 2, junior goalie Nick Collazo (Park Ridge, NJ) made nine stops for his first win since March 26, climbing over .500 with a 4-3 record.