Box Score
MANSFIELD, Conn. – The dual abilities to avoid man-down disadvantages and  to capitalize on man-up advantages continued to pay dividends for the Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team Tuesday afternoon at Rick McCarthy Field.
 
Getting goals from four different players on its four man-up situations on one hand and accumulating only 90 seconds of penalty minutes on the other,  Eastern (3-1) never trailed after the first eight minutes of play on the way to winning its first home match this year -- 9-7 over Johnson & Wales University (3-3).
 
While the Warriors took the lead for good by scoring three times in a ten-minute in the first half  -- getting goals from junior midfielder Mike Stevenson (Shelton), first-year sophomore attack Kyle Bross (Newington) -- the first of his career -- and first-year attack Landon Mabb (Sun Prairie, WI) – the team was unable to secure its fourth win in the last five matches against the Wildcats until the final minutes.
 
The story of the game was not scoring – the teams went scoreless over the final 11 minutes after  sophomore midfielder Connor Chirico (Milford) gave Eastern its final two-goal margin --  but rather, lack of scoring brought upon by aggressive defense and deliberate offense.
 
The Wildcats were limited to only two goals in the second half and they came 17 seconds apart on strikes from sophomore attack Jack Davis and sophomore midfielder Jack Donnelly that kept Johnson & Wales within striking distance by cutting Eastern's only three-goal lead of the game to one in the final minute of the third quarter.
 
Down by just that one goal, 9-8, entering the final period, Johnson & Wales got a pair of saves from freshman goalie Andrew Sforza but turned the ball over once and hit the post a minute later before Chirico (goal) and Mabb (assist) combined on the man-up goal  with 11:24 left thanks for an offside infraction assessed the Wildcats.
 
Eastern sophomore goalie Gregory Hilinski (Shelton) came up big for Eastern in the fourth quarter, making six of his 13 saves to deny the Wildcats from scoring on any of their 13 shots. With Eastern nursing its precarious two-goal lead, Johnson & Wales unloaded four consecutive shots in a span of a minute, with Hilinski turning away two in a row by Davis and senior midfielder Jackson Vecchio.
 
Tight defense kept each team's top season scorers in check: Eastern junior attack Warren Channing (Glastonbury) managed only one goal (and two assists) by the defense primarily of Wildcat freshman defenseman Tyler Chiccino, while the J&W duo of  Davis and freshman Jacob Tresser were limited to a combined total of two goals and three assists.
 
Eastern, which has accumulated only six-and-a-half minutes of penalties this year, spent only 90 seconds in the penalty box Tuesday. The team's only 60-seconds penalty came with 6:10 left in the second quarter and resulted in just one Johnson & Wales shot. With 20 seconds left in the penalty, the Wildcats were issued a one-minute penalty for unnecessary roughness and sophomore attack Tanner Drobish (Wallingford) made them pay with his first extra-man goal of the year on an assist from Stevenson.
 
In four games this year, Eastern has converted 12 of 20 man-up opportunities (60 percent) and has successfully killed off five of the seven extra-man opportunities (including both against the Wildcats) afforded its opponents.
 
Sforza made 12 saves for the Wildcats.
 
In his most effective outing of the season, Eastern senior Rick O'Neal (East Hartford) won 11 of 17 faceoffs – including six of seven in the second half.  First-year midfielder Jacob Corso (Guilford) led Eastern with five ground balls and sophomore defenseman Erik Suzio (Meriden) won four.  Senior defenseman David Hill and Donnelly each won five ground balls for J&W.
 
Eastern visits Roger Williams University Saturday before opening its Little East Conference season March 22 at Keene State College.