Box Score
MILTON, Mass. --  First-year attack Landon Mabb's (Sun Prairie, WI) goal with five seconds left in the first sudden death overtime period lifted the Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team to a 12-11 non-conference season-opening victory over Curry College Sunday afternoon at the D. Forbes Will Athletic Conference.

It marks the second time under second-year head coach Craig Gibson that the Warriors have emerged with a one-goal road win in their season-opener. In Gibson's first game as Eastern's head coach in 2024, Andrew Pandagast snapped a tie with 38 seconds left in a 10-9 opening victory at Gordon College.

The Warriors appeared headed to the win in regulation when sophomore attack Tanner Drobish (Wallingford) and junior attack Warren Channing (Glastonbury) gave the Warriors an 11-8 lead with just over three minutes left, but the Colonels (0-4) responded with three goals in the final 78 seconds of regulation, sending the game into a four-minute sudden death session on senior Brody Dalzell's  second goal of the match with eight seconds left.

The Warriors never trailed and led by three goals twice, holding a slim lead until the final minutes after Channing scored his second goal of the match on an assist from junior midfielder Mike Stevenson (Shelton) that broke the third tie 20 seconds into the fourth quarter.

Making his 17^th career start, sophomore goalie Gregory Hilinski (Shelton) made 11 saves, seven coming in the first half when he helped stake the Warriors to a 7-4 halftime lead. After a succession of turnovers in overtime, Hilinski kept the game tied with his final save coming on a shot by senior team scoring leader Nicholas Cole (who led both teams with five goals on 11 shots) three minutes into overtime.

Channing and first-year player Alex Caltenco (Pelham, NY) had scored goals to give Eastern a quick 2-0 lead less than four minutes into action, Channing connecting on the second shot of the season after senior All-Little East Conference faceoff specialist Rick O'Neal (East Hartford) controlled the opening faceoff which was won by Drobish.

Channing, the team's top freshman scorer in 2023 before sitting out last year, had three goals and two assists, as did Drobish, with Mabb and Stevenson scoring twice with an assist and first-year midfielder Logan Pych (Vernon, NJ) and Caltenco adding their first career goals. Mabb led Eastern with three assists. The top attack line of Channing, Drobish and Mabb combined for eight goals on 16 shots and seven of the team's eight assists.

Drobish and Pych were each credited with four ground balls, with Pych causing four turnovers. Eastern outshot Curry, 41-29.

Eastern visits Russell Sage College in a non-conference match Wednesday at 4 p.m. before opening its home season Saturday against Farmingdale State College at noon.