Box Score  

CASTLETON, Vt. – The takeaway from the 2025 Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse season  is not that the Warriors needed to win their final two regular-season matches to slide into the Little East Conference playoffs, but, rather, that second-year head coach Craig Gibson has been able to lead the Warriors into the playoffs each year while transitioning the program back toward elite status in the conference.

In a "win-or-stay-home" match Friday where neither team led by more than one goal in the first half, Eastern (6-7, 3-5 LEC) broke the fifth and final tie by scoring three straight goals over the first two minutes of the fourth quarter  to qualify for the LEC playoffs for the 24^th straight time with an 11-8 victory over Vermont State University Castleton at Dave Wolk Stadium.

By winning, the Warriors attained the sixth and final playoff seed and look to snap a six-game LEC playoff losing streak when it visits defending playoff champion and No. 3 seed Plymouth State University (10-4, 6-2 LEC) Tuesday at 6:30 p.m. at Panther Field.

 In a match Friday pitting two teams already assured of hosting first-round matches, LEC pre-season favorite Plymouth trimmed homestanding Massachusetts Maritime Academy (9-6, 5-3 LEC),13-11, the Buccaneers settling for the No. 4 seed and a first-round home match against No. 5 Keene State College (7-9, 4-4 LEC). Also on Friday, Keene was beaten, 10-8, by visiting University of Massachusetts Boston (13-4, 7-1 LEC), which had been assured of the No. 2 seed behind unbeaten regular-season champion Western Connecticut State University (11-6, 8-0 LEC) regardless of the outcome.

Against VTSU Castleton Friday, Eastern was an uncharacteristic 1-of-11 on extra-man chances, but after failing on their first eight man-up opportunities, the Warriors made their one strike count. Twenty seconds into VTSU's 30-second penalty for pushing, first-year attack Fabio Tirado (Newington) scored an unassisted goal – his only marker of the match – to put Eastern up by three, 10-7, with 11:34 left.

Twice previously, the Spartans had foiled Eastern's attempts to expand its advantage to three, each time potting consecutive goals in a short period to tie the match.

However, after Castleton season scoring leader Cam Frankenhoff netted his fourth and fifth goals of the match in the final three minutes of the third quarter to force the fourth tie, Eastern responded with three goals in the first 3:26 of the fourth quarter to earn its first three-goal lead, 10-7.

Junior attack Warren Channing (Glastonbury) – the LEC in goals per match -- set up sophomore attack Tanner Drobish (Wallingford) for the latter's 20^th goal of the year to give Eastern the lead for good, 8-7, before sophomore midfielder Connor Chirico (Milford) – set up by Drobish – and Tirado scored 25 seconds apart to make it 10-7. The Warriors burned the shot clock the rest of the way, maintaining possession by getting off shots on five straight possessions.

Braydon Goddard's goal on VTSU's first shot after Eastern's three consecutive goals sliced Eastern's lead to two for the final time, 10-8, with nine minutes left, but the Warriors' clock management skills limited the hosts the rest of the way, and Drobish's third assist of the match set up sophomore midfielder Kyle Bross's (Newington) only goal of the match that restored the three-goal edge and virtually sealed the victory with six minutes left.

While Cam Frankehoff bettered his season goal average with his game-high five, the Warriors limited Castleton's other 20-goal scorers – Liam Everts and Carter Frankenhoff – to a combined one goal on 11 tries at the net.
The Warriors enjoyed one of their most productive afternoons at the faceoff X, with All-Little East senior Rick O'Neal (East Hartford) and sophomore Nathan Tranquilli (North Branford) winning 19 of 23 and each picking up three ground balls. O'Neal was 10-of-12, Tranquilli 9-of-11.

Eastern finished with a +12 edge in shots and behind first-year LSM Jacob Corso's (Guilford) career-high nine ground balls, the Warriors won that battle, 42-29. In addition to three goals and three assists, Drobish picked up five ground balls.

First-year attack Landon Mabb (Sun Prairie, WI) matched Drobish with three goals. Mabb, who, like Drobish, also reached 20 goals on the season, provided most of Eastern's first-half fireworks with all of his goals coming in the first 25 minutes.  His first goal, assisted by Drobish, tied the game at 1-all late in the first quarter and wiped out Castleton's only lead of the afternoon. He followed with unassisted goal to give Eastern its first lead, 3-2 three minutes into the second quarter, and his third goal with six minutes left in the first half provided the Warriors with their first two-goal lead, 5-3.

Sophomore goalie Gregory Hilinski (Shelton) made eight saves – five in the second half – to raise his season save percentage to .463 and lower his goals-against average to 13.07.

By winning, Eastern bookended the regular season with two-game winning streaks. Since winning its opening non-conference pair at Curry College (12-11 in OT) and at Russell Sage (15-9) in early March, Eastern had not won as many as two in a row until staying alive in the chase for an LEC playoff spot Saturday with a 17-3 Senior Day win over the University of Southern Maine and following up against Castleton in Friday's regular-season finale.

The Warriors hold a 32-10 lead in the all-time series with Plymouth, but the Panthers have taken the last four, including an 18-9 decision three weeks ago at Panther Field. In that game, Plymouth led, 9-1, after one quarter before the teams traded goals the rest of the way.

Plymouth senior goalie Ethan Schena, who replaced last year's LEC Goalie-of-the-Year, Owen McNichols, this year, leads the conference in save percentage and goals-against average. Team scoring leader Crosby Fay, a senior attack, is a returning first-team All-LEC performer.