WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – Junior Sean Cafferty (Clinton) and first-year player Richard MacDaniel (Stratford) came off the bench to score less than six minutes apart in the first half as the Eastern Connecticut State University men's soccer team opened its Little East Conference season with a 4-0 victory over the University of Southern Maine Friday afternoon at Thomas Nevers Field.
 
With Eastern (1-1-1 / 1-0-0 LEC) playing its third straight home match to open the season but first match in nearly two weeks, four players scored their first goals of the season, with MacDaniel recording his first collegiate goal on his first shot in his first match after entering the game just minutes earlier.
 
Cafferty was credited with his eighth career goal in the 19^th minute, MacDaniel making it 2-0 in the 32^nd minute, first-year sophomore transfer Christian Mendoza (New Milford) his first career goal in his third match with two minutes left in the first half, and junior Josh Bouchard (Springfield, MA) registering his second career goal to round out the scoring 11 minutes into the second half.
 

 

This year's six goals have now been scored by six different individuals.
 
The win is the 15^th straight for the Warriors over Southern Maine (2-3-1 / 0-1-0 LEC), the ninth in a row by shutout and 13^th by shutout in those 15 wins. The Huskies, ranked in a tie for seventh among nine teams in the LEC pre-season poll, have lost three straight after opening on a three-game unbeaten (2-0-1) streak. Eastern is ranked third in the LEC poll.
 
Off a re-start, Cafferty slammed a low one-timer inside the left post off the rebound of his own shot that was blocked by a USM defender in front of the goal to give the Warriors the early lead, and MacDaniel ripped a left-footed one-timer under the crossbar from 25 yards after the Huskies were unable to clear the ball off a corner kick by Eastern junior Ryan Toomey (Willington) to make it 2-0. Mendoza, who also came off the bench, was unmarked from 15 yards in the middle of the box and one-timed a shot inside the left post in the final minutes of the first half off assists from Cafferty and a perfect ball from Toomey. Finding himself 1v1 with USM keeper Simon Gabaree on a pass from first-year midfielder Sebastian Kadlof (Clinton), Bouchard slid a 12-yard  shot into the right corner of the goal to round out the scoring in the 56th minute.
 
Senior Dylan Pallanck (Willington) and junior Nathan Yeich (Willington) combined on the team's first shutout of the season, each making one save as the Warriors amassed an 18-4 advantage in shots and 10-2 margin in corner kicks. In his first appearance of the year, Pallanck played roughly the first 76 minutes and Yeich closed it out over the last 14.
 
Neither keeper was tested thanks to the tight defense of back-line starters Walter Scudder (Unionville), sophomores Lex Edwards (Milford) and Anton Smith (Plymouth, NH) and Toomey.
 
Eastern visits Babson College Sunday at 2 p.m. The Beavers are ranked second in  NCAA Region II.