Box Score
FARMINGDALE, N.Y. --  In a season-opening match which could have gone either way, this one  fell to homestanding Farmingdale State College, thanks to senior midfielder Anthony Bileddo, who converted a turnover at midfield into what proved to be the game-winning goal in the Rams' 2-1 non-conference victory over Eastern Connecticut State University Saturday afternoon at Rams Field.
 
Bileddo, who scored the tying goal with six minutes left in regulation in the Rams' 2-2 tie with Eastern in last year's opening match at Thomas Nevers Field, collected the ball in the center circle and carried to within 15 yards of the goal before beating Eastern senior keeper Nathan Yeich (Willington) with 18 minutes left in the first half.
 
All three goals came in the first half, with Yeich and Farmingdale junior keeper Rocco Dispinseri posting shutouts over the final 63 minutes.
 
Bileddo, the Skyline Conference Offensive Player-of-the-Year as a junior in 2023, answered with what proved to be the winning goal after Eastern senior forward Sean Cafferty (Clinton) recorded his 13^th career goal – most among active players – had tied the game less than six minutes earlier. All-Little East Conference players Walter Scudder (Unionville), a senior, and Niall O'Brien (Guilford), a junior, had contributed assists on the goal. O'Brien headed Scudder's right-side free kick from the left side across the box to Cafferty, who finished from in close.
 
Junior Tyree Baskin had staked FSC junior keeper Rocco Dispinseri to a 1-0 lead with 20 minutes gone on a rebound goal of a shot by senior Olvin Yanes.
 
Making his 17^th career start but first since the second match of last year, Yeich made four saves on 13 Farmingdale shots while Dispinseri stopped seven of Eastern's 15 tries.
 
While Eastern failed to finish with double-figure wins last year for the first time in five years, Farmingdale was coming off last season's's 11-4-4 season which included a 2-1 loss in the championship match of the Skyline Conference.
 
Eastern visits Massachusetts College Wednesday in a non-conference match at 4 p.m. and visits the University of Hartford next Saturday before opening its home season Sept. 10 against the U.S. Coast Guard Academy at 7 p.m. at Rick McCarthy Field. Eastern and Coast Guard have met 31 times previously but not since the Warriors came away with a 2-1 home overtime victory in 2015. Since losing at Coast Guard, 1-0, in the 2008 ECAC title game, Eastern has not lost to the Bears in the last seven meetings (5-0-2).
 
Farmingdale State Sports Information contributed to this game account.