BOSTON – The Eastern Connecticut State University men's soccer team had tangibly little to play for when the Warriors visited the University of Massachusetts Boston on the final day of the Little East Conference regular season Saturday. For homestanding UMass Boston, however, the stakes were much higher.
 
And the outcome of the match – a 4-1 UMass victory at BC High – illustrated the different perspectives.
 
Already locked into the No. 5 seed in the upcoming LEC playoffs on the strength of last Saturday's scoreless home tie with the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Eastern (6-6-4, 3-4-1) was playing for little more than a winning LEC regular season.
 
At stake for UMass Boston (12-4-2, 6-1-1 LEC), however, was the outright Little East regular-season title, and with it the top playoff seed in its quest for a second straight conference playoff title.
 
With Keene State College (9-5-2, 5-1-2 LEC) having already completed its LEC regular season with 17 points, the Beacons needed an outright win and 19 points to leapfrog  the Owls, who had won, 2-1, when the teams had met during the regular season, and thus, would have gained the tie-breaker and No. 1 seed if the teams had finished in a tie.
 
Eastern will meet No. 4 seed Rhode Island College (8-4-5, 4-2-2 LEC) in the first round Tuesday at 6 p.m. in Providence. The Anchormen won the regular-season decision over the Warriors, 1-0 at Providence. Rhode Island is coming off Saturday's 2-1 home loss to Western Connecticut and is 4-4-5 since opening the season with four straight non-conference victories. Against Eastern on Sept. 27 at Alumni Stadium, Rhode Island scored the only goal with less than three minutes left.
 
Eastern brought a four-game unbeaten (2-0-2) streak into play while the Beacons were coming off a 1-0 loss at Framingham State University (which Eastern had tied at home Oct. 3), but had lost only once in nine home games (7-1-1) this year.
 
All-conference sophomore midfielder Niall O'Brien (Guilford) gave Eastern the early lead Saturday with his fourth goal of the season – on a penalty kick in the 16^th minute– but sophomore midfielder Ryan Lima countered with his 11^th and 12^th goals of the season just three minutes apart later in the half to give the hosts the lead for good. With UMB  leading 3-1, Lima completed the hat trick with his 13^th goal of the year – tying him with All-LEC sophomore midfielder Gabriel Meireles for the team lead.
 
It marked the seventh time this year that UMB has scored at least four goals in a match and the first time that Eastern had allowed more than three. The Warriors had entered play having posted three consecutive shutouts and had limited opponents to just over one goal per match over the course of the season.
 
Making his 14^th consecutive start, Eastern senior Dylan Pallanck (Willington) made six saves to close out the regular season with a 5-4-2 record.
 
UMass outshot the Warriors, 25-10 and had an 8-3 advantage in corner kicks.
 
If the Warriors survive their first-round playoff Tuesday, they will meet UMass again in Boston -- this time in the tournament semifinals for the second straight year. If they meet in the playoffs, both teams this time will have the same incentive – a berth in the conference finals. In last year's semifinals, the Warriors led by a goal late in regulation and again early in overtime, but the Beacons prevailed, 4-3, behind Lima's tying goal with six minutes left in regulation and two goals by Josh DeAlmeida in the extra session.