Box Score
WORCESTER, Mass. -- The Eastern Connecticut State University defense set the tempo with a stellar 90-minute effort and the Warriors parlayed five shots into three goals as the Warriors won their fifth match of the season with a 3-0 non-conference victory over Clark University Wednesday night at Granger Field.

Eastern (5-2-0) connected on its first two shots of the game -- the second shot not coming until the opening minutes of the second half -- and sophomores Jack Harmon (Manasquan, NJ) and Aidan Peterson (Cheshire) combined to  turn away all 12 of Clark's (3-2-1) shots that reached net as the Warriors evened their road record at 2-2-0 and avenged a 2-0 loss to the Cougars a year ago at Rick McCarthy Field. With nine regular-season matches remaining, Eastern has already won more game than a year ago.

While Clark dominated the stat sheet with a whopping 34-5 advantage in shots and 7-1 advantage in corner kicks, the Warriors proved that statistics can be deceiving as their defense dominated, allowing only a few dangerous chances that Harmon and Peterson quelled en route to the team's first shutout of the season. Harmon made five saves in the first half and came back to make two more over the final 11 minutes while Peterson stopped five shots over the middle 34 minutes  Harmon improved his save percentage from .611 to .720 and lowered his goals-against average from 1.47 to 1.30. In four appearances and 147 minutes off the bench, Peterson shows a .923 save percentage and a 0.61 GAA. 

The Eastern defense -- keyed by seniors Caiden Hettrick-Rivera (Portland), Lex Edwards (Milford) and Anton Smith (Plymouth, NH) -- held the fort until the offense caught up. Junior Dominick Bugnacki (Coventry) gave Eastern the lead that it would not surrender with his third goal of the season in the 13th minute. The one-goal lead remained the margin until first-year player Ben Syphrett (Ledyard) made it 2-0 with his second goal in the first three minutes of the second half, and sophomore Eliot Melgar (New York, NY) closed it out with ten minutes left with his team-leading fourth goal of the year. With the goal, Melgar exceeded his total from a year ago. The Warriors have now scored at least three goals in four of seven matches this year.

Junior midfielder Sebastian Kadlof (Clinton) recorded an assist hat trick, providing helpers on all three goals in reaching 20 career points. He has 12 career assists, a team-leading seven this season. Melgar took Kadlof's volley from near midfield and sent the final goal of the evening through the five-hole of Clark junior goalie Jaime Pedraza.

The home match was the fourth straight for Clark (1-2-1 at Granger Field), which was coming off a scoreless tie with the U.S. Coast Guard Academy on Saturday. The Bears are the last team to defeat Eastern, pinning a 2-1 verdict on the Warriors two weeks ago in New London.

Eastern hosts Trinity College Saturday at 4 p.m. on Senior Day. The teams are meeting for the first time since Eastern won its second straight over the Bantams, 2-0 at Hartford, in 2019.