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Eastern Connecticut State University

Official Site of Eastern Connecticut State University Athletics
men's lacrosse seniors
Photo by Carmen Nieves '23
8
Southern Maine SOMAINE 4-12, 2-6 LEC
19
Winner Eastern Connecticut ECSUML 6-10, 3-5 LEC
Southern Maine SOMAINE
4-12, 2-6 LEC
8
Final
19
Eastern Connecticut ECSUML
6-10, 3-5 LEC
Winner
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 F
Southern Maine SOMAINE 1 3 3 1 8
Eastern Connecticut ECSUML 5 4 6 4 19

Game Recap: Men's Lacrosse |

Men's Lacrosse: Seniors Sizzle in Send-Off, Stake Claim to LEC Playoffs

MANSFIELD, Conn. – Few – if any – of Eastern Connecticut State University's 22 previous men's lacrosse wins over the University of Southern Maine could have been described as 'significant.'
                                                  
Friday afternoon, however, with a berth in next week's Little East Conference playoffs the prize for the winner and the end of the season the penalty for the loser, it was just that.
 
Eastern (6-10, 3-5 LEC) got out quickly Friday by rolling up an early 9-1 lead after 21 minutes but needed a spurt at the end of the third quarter when it scored three goals in the final 13 seconds to regain an eight-goal lead and went on to a 19-8 victory at Rick McCarthy Field for its 23rd straight win over USM, guaranteeing the Warriors the sixth and final playoff spot -- their 22nd consecutive LEC playoff berth.

 
Zacharie Appolon
ZACHARIE APPOLON... 100th career point
(Photo by Carmen Nieves '23)
In the game which signalled the final home contest in the careers of ten seniors and one senior student-assistant coach, the Warriors reached 50 shots for the third time this year, forced three Southern Maine (4-12, 2-6 LEC) goalies to combine on 18 saves – the second most by their opponent this year – and won a season-high 22 faceoffs in 30 attempts (73.3 percent).
 
Sixth-seeded Eastern will face third-seeded Plymouth State University (13-3, 6-2 LEC)  in Tuesday's LEC first round at 5 p.m. at Panther Field. With a 9-8 overtime home upset of Keene State College Friday night, the Panthers finished in a three-way tie for second and were awarded the No. 3 seed on tie-breakers. The overall and conference wins are season records for Plymouth, which defeated Eastern, 14-5, when the teams met at Plymouth April 8.

Friday, after the Huskies had whittled Eastern's early eight-goal lead to three with six minutes left in the third quarter by keeping the Warriors off the board for 12 minutes, Eastern responded with eight straight goals in a span of 11 minutes, three coming in the final 13 seconds of the third quarter. Twice, Eastern scored six seconds apart in those final 13 seconds, equalling the second-fastest goals in program history.
 
After first-year player Warren Channing (Glastonbury) and senior Shane Haggerty (Stamford) scored less than a minute apart to give Eastern a 12-7 lead late in the third quarter, sophomore Quinn O'Connor (Glastonbury) made it 13-7 with 13 seconds left. Sophomore Rick O'Neal (East Hartford) then won the ensuing faceoff and took it in himself for his first goal of the year with seven seconds left to make it 14-7. O'Neal again won the faceoff and picked up the ground ball himself and passed to Channing, who fed Haggerty, who barely beat the clock ending the third quarter with his third goal of the match.
 
O'Neal won 17 of 22 faceoffs to raise his season percentage over .500 from .478 to .534, while senior Ryan Stocks (Longmeadow, MA) picked up ten ground balls (and caused four turnovers) to move him to within 16 of 200 in his career.
 
Southern Maine senior Nick James was a one-man wrecking crew for the Huskies, scoring six of their goals (giving him 47 for the season) and assisting on a seventh. However, after James potted four goals and assisted on another in a stretch of 12 minutes, the Warriors were able to minimize his damage by limiting him to one goal over the final 21 minutes.
 
Ten players contributed at least one point, with Haggerty adding three assists to go along with three goals. O'Connor (2 goals, 3 assists) and Channing (2-3) both chipped in five points and senior Garrett Lapham (Trumbull) added four points on three goals and an assist.  Junior Zacharie Appolon (Stamford) reached 100 points in his career with three points on back-to-back goals in the Warriors' early 9-1 run and an assist early in the third quarter. First-year Collin Falconer (Northbridge, MA) recorded his first career point with a goal inside the final two minutes on an assist from Haggerty.
 
Behind Stocks and O'Neal (10 ground balls each), senior Domenic Scarano (Berlin) picked up seven ground balls and senior Jonathan Bernier (Somers) four to help Eastern to a +12 advantage with 44 ground balls – its third-highest total of the year.
 
Senior Nick Collazo (Park Ridge, NJ) stopped six shots to record his tenth career win – moving into the top ten all-time in that category.                              

Eastern and Plymouth will be meeting for the tenth time in the LEC playoffs, the Warriors having won seven times. Eastern returns nine players from a team which lost to the Panthers the last time the teams met in the conference playoffs by a score of 10-6 at McCarthy Field in 2021. This will be the first LEC playoff game between the programs at Plymouth, NH, the first nine having been hosted by Eastern.
 
Plymouth brings a six-game winning streak into Tuesday's matchup, with two of its losses this year coming a week apart in back-to-back LEC losses to Western Connecticut and UMass Boston.
                        
 
EASTERN CONN. vs. PLYMOUTH STATE IN LITTLE EAST PLAYOFFS
(Won 7, Lost 2)
 
Date Result Round Location
May 3, 2001 +18-3 Semifinals HOME
April 29, 2004 +23-8 Semifinals HOME
May 4, 2006 +14-7 Semifinals HOME
May 1, 2008 -10-11, 2ot Semifinals HOME
April 30, 2009 +10-5 Semifinals HOME
May 3, 2011 +12-5 First HOME
April 30, 2015 +13-9 Semifinals HOME
May 5, 2016 +15-14 Semifinals HOME
May 4, 2021 -6-10 First HOME
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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