Box Score WENHAM, Mass. --  In a game dominated by defense, the Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team had the upper hand, shutting out Gordon College in the third quarter and off the board for 19 total minutes in an 11-7 non-conference victory in the season-opener for the Warriors Monday evening at Brigham Complex.
 
In defeating Gordon (0-2) in the season-opener for the second time in four years and improving to 10-0 in the all-time series, Eastern turned a two-goal deficit with two minutes left in the third quarter into an 8-4 lead a minute into the fourth quarter by striking for six unanswered goals.
 
Sophomores Brycen Kennedy (Southington), Tim Lichack (Clinton) and Quinn O'Connor (Glastonbury) led the way for Eastern with three points each. Kennedy and Lichack each had three goals and O'Connor added two goals and an assist, as did senior co-captain Garrett Lapham (Trumbull). Kennedy and O'Connor finished 1-2 in goals and points as first-year players last year, while Lapham returned to the team after a two-year's absence.
 
Senior goalie Nick Collazo (Park Ridge, NJ), the team's fulltime starter last year for the first time, stopped 12 saves while Gordon's Colin Liscomb turned away 15. Junior Scott Galbo (East Lyme), back with the club after a year's absence, won six faceoffs and sophomore Rick O'Neal (East Hartford), last year's most effective faceoff man, won both of his attempts. Aidan Walsh of Gordon commanded nine of 16 faceoffs.
 
Lichack won a team-high five ground balls while senior co-captain Domenic Scarano (Berlin) was credited with three ground balls and caused two turnovers.
 
Eastern visits Curry College Thursday at 4 p.m. at D. Forbes Will Athletic Compex in a non-conference match. The Warriors defeated the Colonels in each of their first two varsity seasons in 1996 and '97, but have not met since. Curry (0-2) dropped each of its first two games on the road this year, both by a goal, one of which ended in overtime.