Box Score
MANSFIELD, Conn. – The Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team kept VTSU Castleton off the board for the first 17 minutes but Spartan freshman goalie Chase Strychaluk kept his team within striking range until the final quarter before the Warriors prevailed, 13-6, in the final Little East Conference regular-season match for both squads Friday afternoon at Rick McCarthy Field.
 
By winning its first home match of the year, Eastern (6-10, 3-5 LEC) is assured of the No. 5 seed in the Little East Conference playoffs -- which get underway Tuesday – while Castleton (3-13, 2-6 LEC) lands with the sixth and final playoff seed. Eastern and Castleton will both be on the road against No. 4 Keene State College (6-8, 5-3 LEC) and No. 3 Plymouth State University (12-4, 7-1 LEC), respectively, in the first round. .
 
Although Castleton was held without a goal for the first 17 minutes and the last 16 minutes, Strychaluk kept  his team within striking distance by making 24 saves – 11 in a first quarter where Eastern unloaded 19 of its 52 shots (it's second second-highest total of the year) and jumped to a 3-0 lead.
 
After scoring the first three goals of the match and five of the first six, Eastern never trailed, but the Spartans were never more than four behind until the final ten minutes.
 
Sophomore Carter Frankenhoff – Castleton's team scoring leader – was limited to one goal on eight shots, but his 30^th goal of the season came with 70 seconds left in the third quarter and cut Eastern's lead to three, 9-6. Eastern won the ensuing faceoff, however, and junior attack Brycen Kennedy (Southington) converted a pass from senior midfielder Zacharie Appolon (Stamford) to restore Eastern's four-goal edge with 20 seconds left in the third.
 
The Warriors were able to finally pull away by matching its 3-0 first quarter with a 3-0 fourth, with Kennedy, junior midfielder Quinn O'Connor (Glastonbury) and first-year midfielder Gabe Roman (Meriden) each connecting once over the final ten minutes.
 
With Castleton's No. 1 and No. 2 faceoff men both unavailable, Eastern junior Rick O'Neal (East Hartford) had his way against two Spartan faceoff opponent at the faceoff X by winning 18 of 22 tries and scooping up 14 of the ground balls himself. The faceoff wins were the second-most this year for O'Neal, who recorded his 200^th win of the season in the second quarter and improved his season percentage to .548
 
Eastern first-year goalie Gregory Hilinski (Shelton) made 17 saves – four shy of his career-best -- with nine of them coming in the fourth-quarter shutout when the Spartans put all of their attempts on net.
 
Eight different players contributed to Eastern's 24 points, with O'Connor, Kennedy and sophomore attack Mike Stevenson (Shelton) each scoring three times and adding one helper. As one of four seniors playing the final home matches of their careers, Appolon matched his season high with four assists that give him 77 in 59 career games and moves him to within four of tying Eastern and Little East Hall of Famer Marc DiGiovanni for sixth place all time.
 
Appolon and junior middie Ethan May (Trumbull) helped the Warriors roughly double (45-23) Castleton's ground ball total with four and three, respectively. It marked Eastern's third game this year of more than 40 ground balls.
 
Frankenhoffs Carter and Cam, who rank 1-2 in goals for the Spartans with a total of 52 – combined for only two goals and one assist while taking 14 of their team's 31 shots.