Box Score
MANSFIELD, Conn. – Against perhaps its most talented opponent to date, the Eastern Connecticut State University defense was on full display – most notably in the second half – as the Warriors pinned a scoreless tie on Wesleyan University in men's soccer Wednesday evening at Rick McCarthy Field.

For 90 minutes, Eastern's (3-7-4) defense bent but did not break, the Warriors allowing 26 shots but coming away unscathed against a Wesleyan (5-3-5) team which has either tied or lost by a 1-0 score to five nationally-ranked teams this year.

Heading into the evening, Wesleyan had won seven times in nine matches in the all-time series against Eastern on the Warriors' home field. Ironically, Eastern's only home win in that span had come in 2012 by a 1-0 score when it was outshot by 26-3 and out-cornered, 8-2.

Chief among Eastern's defensive stars Wednesday was first-year keeper Jack Harmon (Manasquan, NJ), who, in his fifth career appearance (all off the bench) made four second-half saves (two of them outstanding) after taking over for senior Nathan Yeich (Willington) to start the second half. Yeich made only two saves in a scoreless first half, but it was an acrobatic drive to his right on a drive by sophomore forward Joshwin Jennings with 12 minutes left in the half that kept the match scoreless at the break.

With the Warriors fending off hard-charging Wesleyan in the second half – especially over the final 20 minutes – Harmon devoured a blast by the dangerous Jennings (five shots off the bench, three of them on target) from the left side with 17 minutes left, then submitted what could be termed the save of the match when he denied Will Martin – a dangerous Wesleyan midfielder – on a point-blank drive set up on a pass from Chris Porte from point-blank range with five minutes left.

Playing without junior defender Lex Edwards (Milford) – who had averaged 86 minutes in 12 starts this year – the Eastern defense got stalwart play from, among others, defenders Ryan Toomey (Willington), a senior co-captain, juniors Niall O'Brien (Guilford) and Anton Smith (Plymouth, NH) and senior co-captain and midfielder Walter Scudder (Unionville).

The Warriors were held without a shot in the second half, but were buoyed by its defense, which consistently cleared crossing passes and corner kicks out of the box.

Eastern's best chance to score came inside the final minute of the first half when – after two failed corner kicks -- senior scoring leader Sean Cafferty (Clinton) watched a sliding one-timer off a cross from Scudder  sail wide right.

The Cardinals unloaded 19 second-half shots, but only four of them reached net. Less than two minutes into the half, Harmon made a save on freshman Nolan Jocobi's header. Twelve minutes later, Jocobi helped force an Eastern turnover in the Warriors' defensive end, but his rocket sailed wide right of the net. Wesleyan's most dangerous attempt not saved by Harmon came 20 minutes into the second half when freshman Calder Truesdale headed Porte's pass from the left off the crossbar while running diagonally from left to right through the box.

Finishing 2-1-1 on the fourth of a four-match homestand, Eastern closes the regular season with Little East Conference matches Saturday at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth at 11 a.m.  and Nov. 2 at home against UMass Boston at 4 p.m.

The Warriors stand in eighth place with four points in the nine-team conference, two points ahead of UMass Dartmouth (2-10-3, 0-4-2 LEC) and 12 behind conference leader UMass Boston (8-1-4, 5-0-1 LEC). Eastern is two points out of the sixth and final LEC playoff berth behind VTSU Castleton (5-6-4, 2-4-0 LEC), which holds the tie-breaker with Eastern on the merits of its 1-0 win over the Warriors at home Oct. 6.