WILLIMANTIC, Conn. --  First-year midfielder Niall O'Brien (Guilford) came off the bench to score his first career goal and lift the Eastern Connecticut State University men's soccer team to a 1-0 non-conference victory over Fisher College Tuesday afternoon at Thomas Nevers Field
 
The win is the first at home this year in three tries for Eastern (3-2-2), which was coming off a 3-1 loss Saturday at Nevers Field in its Little East Conference opener. It was the first meeting between the programs.
 
Sophomore keeper Nathan Yeich (Willington) made two saves to remain unbeaten (3-0-0) this year for Eastern. The 1-0 shutout was the second in the last two starts for Yeich, who lowered his goals-against average to 0.31 and raised his save percentage to .923.
 
Eastern applied pressure in the opening minutes of the second half but sent to headers over the net on re-starts before O'Brien provided Eastern with the only goal of the match. Inserted in the lineup to start the second half, O'Brien connected on  his first shot of the half, beating Fisher (1-5-1) senior keeper Rafael Fabra with a quick one-timer from the middle of the box just 11 minutes into the second half. O'Brien beat Fabra from the left side inside the near left post on a feed from senior midfielder Andres Mayuri (West Hartford), who bounced up quickly after being shoved to the ground outside the box and fed O'Brien with a centering pass off a quick re-start.
 
The 6-foot-4 inch Fabra had kept the game scoreless with an aggressive style, snaring corner kicks and crosses in the box that thwarted many of Eastern's potential opportunities.
 
Eastern held a 17-6 advantage in shots and allowed only one Fisher corner kick in each half. Fabra entered play with a 4.52 GAA and .646 save percetn5age in four appearances (three starts).
 
Ranked No. 1 in the LEC pre-season poll after winning last year's LEC regular season and playoffs, Eastern returns to conference play Saturday at the University of Southern Maine at 3 p.m.