Box Score
MANSFIELD, Conn. — Eastern Connecticut holds off a late push from UMass Dartmouth to improve to 8-4-0 on the season.
Game Information:
- Score: Eastern Connecticut State University: 2, UMASS Dartmouth: 1
- Records: Eastern (8-4, 4-0 LEC), UMASS Dartmouth (6-5-1, 2-1-1 LEC)
- Location: Mansfield, CT (Rick McCarthy Field)
Scoring Summary:
- 4:10 (1-0) UMD: A giveaway in a dangerous area allows UMass Dartmouth's Nick Mahjoory to win the ball and fire a long-range effort towards goal. Noah Page stops the initial shot, but Mahjoory picks up the loose ball and finds the back of the net with his second attempt
- 11:21 (1-1): Eastern Connecticut respond quickly, scoring off the game's first corner kick. A perfectly placed ball from Caiden Hettrick-Rivera (Portland) finds Sebastian Kadlof (Clinton), who rose higher than his man at the back post to level the score at 1 a piece
- 72:54 (2-1) ECSU: The Warriors score again from a corner kick and on a double-header, this CK taken by team captain Niall O'Brien (Guilford). Kadlof starts from near the goal line and loops out wide and stations himself outside the right post. He heads O'Brien's perfectly-placed header down to the turf in the middle of the box. On the first bounce from 12 yards out, Hettrick-Rivera (who takes the majority of Eastern's corners when taken from the right corner), lofts a header over the head of UMass senior keeper Ethan Donahue, who appears to get a hand on it to slow it down but is unable to swat it out of the goal on his follow-up attempt.
Key Moments:
- In the 15th minute, Eliot Melgar (New York, NY) has a great chance to put the Warriors in front. Kadlof delivers a low cross to the feet of Melgar, but his first-time effort lacks power and allows Ethan Donahue to get behind it for the Corsairs
- UMASS Dartmouth's Mario Rodriguez wins the ball deep in the Warriors' half, firing a shot towards Jack Harmon, who makes a leaping stop and is able to keep the ball away from the onrushing Lennon Rodrigues in the 25th minute
- Late in the first half, Eastern has a flurry of chances with Nico Matteucci (Colchester) and Dominick Bugnacki (Coventry). Matteucci found himself 1 on 1 with Donahue, forcing a great save from the UMass Dartmouth keeper to keep the score level
- The Corsairs came out of the halftime break firing, with 2 shots and their only corner of the game coming in the first 10 minutes of the 2nd half
Game Notes:
- Kadlof and Hettrick-Rivera each had 1 goal and 1 assist, with O'Brien also credited with an assist on the second goal
- The Corsairs outshot the Warriors 11 to 8, with both teams managing five on target
- Despite a combined 20 fouls throughout the match, no cautions or ejections were received
- Kadlof's goal and assist today bring him to 4 and 8 on the season, respectively. This ranks him second-highest in points in the Little East Conference, only behind Western Connecticut's Nickolas Santana
- Eastern last won its first four LEC games 14 years ago, when it won its first six before UMD spoiled its undefeated bid by beating the Warriors, 1-0, on the final day of the regular season at Dartmouth, MA. As the No. 1 seed, Eastern went on to its first of three straight LEC playoff championships with a pair of shutout wins over UMD (4-0) in the semifinals and Keene State College (1-0) in the final. That year, Eastern won its NCAA opener, 2-0, against Springfield College.
- Eastern remains unbeaten (6-0-1) against the Corsairs in the last seven meetings and is 4-0-1 vs. UMD at home in the last five contests.
- While the teams met in the LEC playoff finals in back-to-back years in 2012 and '13 (Eastern winning both at home by 3-1 scores), they were a combined 2-11-3 last year in the LEC regular-season, 7-20-7 overall
Up Next:
The Warriors head to Boston to take on Massachusetts Boston next Saturday at 12 p.m. They will look to extend their conference record to 5-0 on the year.
