Box Score
GORHAM, Maine –The Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team spotted the University of Southern Maine the first two goals before roaring back with ten unanswered ones of its own and snapped a four-game losing streak with a 19-8 Little East Conference victory Saturday afternoon at Hannaford Field.
With the win, Eastern (5-10, 2-5 LEC) remains unbeaten in 24 games in the all-time series with Southern Maine (5-10, 1-5 LEC), and unofficially, moved within a regular-season-ending win over VTSU Castleton (3-11, 2-4 LEC) Friday at home to secure one of the six spots in the LEC playoffs which get underway with first-round matches a week from Tuesday.
Eastern junior
Rick O'Neal (East Hartford) dominated at the faceoff X by winning 19 of 25 to improve his season percentage to .532 and move to within eight of 200 faceoff wins this year. His 12 ground balls draws him to within 11 of 200 in his career.
First-year attacks
Connor Chirico (Milford) and
Tanner Drobish (Wallingford) each had five goals and combined for five assists as nine different players contributed to the scoring. Junior midfielder
Quinn O'Connor's (Glastonbury) three points (2 goals, 1 assist) allowed him to reach and exceed 100 points in his career. Senior midfielder
Zacharie Appolon (Stamford) matched Chirico with three assists.
First-year goalies
Gregory Hilinski (Shelton) and
Keane Stanton (New Milford) combined on the win, with Hilinski earning credit for his fifth win of the year. He stopped 11 shots in the first 52 minutes before giving way to Stanton, who made his fifth appearance of the year.
Drobish and Appolon each won five ground balls and junior defenseman
Sean Ventresca (Montville) collected four. First-year defenseman
Josh Conn (Griswold) caused three turnovers.
In the regular-season Senior Day final Friday at 4 p.m. against VTSU Castleton, the Warriors bring a 5-1 record all-time against the Spartans, who visit UMass Boston (11-4, 5-1 LEC) Monday in a conference match before facing Eastern. A VTSU loss against the Beacons drops it into a two-way tie for fifth place with Eastern.
