MANSFIELD, Conn. – A number of matches this year for the Eastern Connecticut State University men's soccer team have produced far few goals. Saturday's Little East Conference contest against Vermont State University Castleton (formerly Castleton University) at Rick McCarthy Field was not one of them.
 
Averaging  1.6 goals per match through its first seven matches, Eastern (3-4-1, 2-2-0 LEC) struck for a season-high six -- four in the second half -- after Castleton (3-7-0, 1-3-0) had posted the first of the game in evening its conference and home records following  a 6-1 win that came on the heals of consecutive one-goal conference losses in the last week.
 
First-year midfielder Miles Deiulis (Canton) scored the first points of his career with two goals and an assist, sophomore forward Caiden Hettrick-Rivera (Portland)  was credited with the first two assists of his career in a span of 1:31 late in the game when his teammates returned his initial shot that was saved into the back of the net, first-year midfielder Reid Dowling (East Lyme) came off the bench for his first goal, senior forward Andrés Mayuri (West Hartford) registered the 20^th goal and 22^nd assist of his career, sophomore midfielder Niall O'Brien (Guilford) got on the board for the first time this year after recording a half-dozen goals as a first-year player in 2022, and first-year forward Julius McNeill (East Hartford) chipped in his second goal of the season (first since opening day) on a rebound of  Hettrick-Rivera that was saved.
 
First-year forward Rudy MacDaniel (Stratford) delivered the first assist of his career and junior Sean Cafferty (Clinton) added his team-leading third assist of the season.
 
Castleton scored only its second goal in the last six matches in the series with 15 minutes left in the first half on  Ayoob Musanovich's boomer from outside the box after Eastern senior keeper Dylan Pallanck (Willingford) had charged off his line to punch out a drive off a free kick by sophomore Matt Spiller. Eastern  tied it four minutes later when Mayuri hammered in the rebound of his penalty kick which initially was saved by keeper Andres Soto Burgos, and after Dowling gave the Warriors a 2-1 halftime lead when he knocked in MacDaniel's cross from the left with 11:33 left, the second half belonged to Eastern.
 
With Eastern leading 3-1, Deiulis scored twice and McNeil once in a span of ten minutes that salted award the team's tenth victory over the Spartans in the ten-game series. Eastern outshot Castleton, 13-2 in the second half, 28-5 in the game, and accumulated a 9-1 advantage in corner kicks. O'Brien made it 3-1 just 1:39 into the second half when he one-timed Mayuri's cross at the left post and that lead stood until Deiulis made a long run down the right flank and took a return pass from Cafferty to beat Soto-Burgos and make it 4-1.

Soto-Burgos was relieved with 18:30 left and the Spartans trailing by that 4-1 score, but Eastern tacked on two more goals off his replacement when McNeill buried a rebound into a virtually open net with 15 minutes left, and Deiulis did likewise less than two minutes later.
 
Pallanck worked late into the game and made two saves to even his record at 3-3-0 before junior Nathan Yeich (Willington) wrapped it up by playing the final uneventful 15 minutes.
 
The victory moves 17^th-year head coach Greg DeVito (199-82-27) to within one of his 200^th victory as a collegiate head coach. DeVito is already the program leader in wins and winning percentage and is second in matches coached in the program's 64-year history.
 
Eastern hosts Framingham State University Tuesday at 4 p.m. in a non-conference match.