Box Score
MANSFIELD, Conn. --  In 2024 under first-year head coach Craig Gibson, the Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team has made an extra effort to cut down on allowing extra-man opportunities to its opponent.

Saturday in the Little East Conference opener against Keene State College (2-5, 1-0 LEC), Eastern (3-6, 0-1 LEC) remained true to form, but the few extra-man opportunities it afforded the Owls proved costly, as Keene turned its three man-up tries into three goals and went on to a 14-8 victory at Rick McCarthy Field.

Trailing early by three goals, Keene used consecutive extra-man goals by Rex Maccarini and Jack Ansart two minutes apart midway though the second quarter to tie the game, 4-4, and the Owls never trailed thereafter in downing the Warriors for the 15^th consecutive time.

It was rare confrontation of teams with losing overall record between the most successful post-season programs in LEC men's lacrosse history. Eastern won the first four LEC playoff titles beginning in 2001 and claimed six of the first nine and eight overall, while Keene more recently won six straight championships, ten overall.

After playing its first seven games on the road, Eastern was playing back-to-back home games for the only time this year. Keene won on the road for the first time in four outings.
It marked only the second time this year and first since March 2 that the Warriors had been victimized by as many as three extra-man goals.

After Maccarini and Ansart converted their team's first two extra-man opportunities, Ansart made it 3-for-3 with exactly a minute left in the third quarter that pushed the Owls' lead to 10-6 heading into the final 15 minutes. The goal was the team-leading 16^th of the season for Ansart, who also tops the team with eight (of its 11) man-up attempts.

Eastern came up empty on its four extra-man tries that lowered its success percentage in that department to .200 (9-for-45).

Eastern junior Rick O'Neal (East Hartford) took all 23 of the game's faceoffs against four different opponents, winning 13 (including the 100^th of the season in the first quarter) to improve his season percentage to .509, and picking up six of the ground balls himself. The most successful of Keene's four faceoff men was Jack Theriault, who was 6-of-8 against O'Neal.

O'Neal won five of six faceoffs in the first quarter that helped propel the Warriors to an early 4-1 lead before the Owls turned the tables in the second period by outscoring Eastern, 5-1 to take a 6-5 lead into the half, then won the pivotal third quarter by a 4-1 margin that gave them a 10-6 advantage after three periods.

Eastern struck for four goals in the first 14 minutes but managed only four more over the remaining 46 minutes. First-year attack Tanner Drobish (Wallingford) scored twice and junior Brycen Kennedy (Southington) and sophomore Mike Stevenson (Shelton) to stake the Warriors to their quick 4-1 lead after one quarter, but Keene's defense limited Eastern to just one goal over the next 21 minutes. First-year midfielder Sean Filley (Guilford) finally got the Warriors back in the scoring column five-and-a-half minutes into the second half to bring them to within 8-6 before Keene responded with the next four, Ansart and Maccarini scoring once each in that run.

First-year goalie Gregory Hilinski (Shelton) made 12 saves while Keene senior Charlie Giuliotti stopped ten shots.

Jeff Wiedenfeld, who entered the game with only two goals, led Keene with four goals and two assists while senior Colby Cala won four ground balls and caused three turnovers.
Kennedy, senior Ben Duquene (Stamford) and junior Cody Brown (Waterford) followed O'Neal with three ground balls each.

Eastern visits Salem State University in a conference match Saturday at 4 p.m.