WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – For the first time in 45 years, the Eastern Connecticut State University men's soccer team defeated the University of Hartford, and with the 4-0 victory Friday afternoon at Thomas Nevers Field, presented 17^th-year head coach Greg DeVito with his 200^th career coaching victory at Eastern.

DeVito's 200^th victory came on the second attempt for the Warriors, who had tied Framingham State College Tuesday at Nevers Field. Win No. 199 had also come at home in a 6-1 Little East Conference victory over VTSU Castleton last Saturday in a game moved from Nevers's grass field to the turf at Rick McCarthy Field due to rain.

The winningest head coach in the program's 64-year history, DeVito (200-84-28) needs 14 matches to also have coached the most matches in program history. That distinction belongs to DeVito's predecessor, Frantz Innocent (who was in attendance Friday), who coached 325 matches between 1990-2006. Along with Innocent, DeVito, who assisted his predecessor for two seasons before taking over in 2007, has coached one season less than program founder and Eastern Alumni Hall of Famer Thomas Nevers (1961-78).

 

The wait to defeat Hartford for the fourth time in his nine-game series dating back to 1974, was necessitated because the programs had not met since 1982, when the Hawks moved from Division II to Division I. After more than three decades on the Division I level, Hartford is transitioning to Division III as a member of the Commonwealth Coast Conference (CCC).

Eastern had won three of the first four matches in the series with Hartford before the Hawks had captured the last four leading up to Friday. Eastern's last win over UH came in Thomas Nevers' final year, 2-1, in 1978. That win capped a 7-0 start for the Warriors, who eventually finished at 9-5. (Hartford was one of seven Division II opponents on Eastern's schedule that year.)

With Friday's victory, Eastern (4-4-2) climbed over the .500 mark at home to 3-2-2 and stretched its unbeaten streak to a season-high three (2-0-1) since consecutive Little East Conference one-goal losses.

Hartford was coming off its first win of the season on Tuesday in a 2-1 home win over the College of Mount Saint Vincent but the Warriors wasted little time putting the visitors in a hole when senior Andres Mayuri (West Hartford) converted a penalty kick five minutes into action after the Hawks were whistled for a foul inside the 18-yard box. The goal was Mayuri's team-leading fifth of the season and the 21^st of his career.

Two of the team's last three goals Friday came from players coming off the bench. Junior Sean Cafferty (Clinton) made it 2-0 with 15 minutes left in the first half when he scored his third goal of the year off the bench and off his own rebound and past UH sophomore keeper Mauricio Vega-Estades, who was making his collegiate debut. Sophomore starting player Niall O'Brien (Guilford) pushed the lead to 3-0 in the opening ten minutes of the second half when he boomed a free kick – his second goal of the year -- from the top of the box under the crossbar and past new keeper Ryan Lunn, and sophomore Caiden Hettrick-Rivera (Portland) closed out the scoring when he came off the bench to score his first goal of the season  from in close on a pass from first-year player Bradley Lim (Marlborough), who was credited with his first career point.

In his sixth start of the year, senior keeper Dylan Pallanck (Willington) posted his third career full-length shutout, needing only one save to backstop the team's second (4-0) shutout of the season.

Eastern plays the first of three straight road games Wednesday with a conference encounter at Western Connecticut State University at 6 p.m.