Box Score
MANSFIELD, Conn. – With a decisive final week of the Little East Conference men's lacrosse season looming against two of the top four conference teams, Eastern Connecticut State University utilized the opportunity to provide some rest of sorts for many of its starters as 35 players saw action and contributed to a 19-3 victory over Vermont State University Castleton Saturday afternoon at Rick McCarthy Field.
 
Ten players came off the bench to chip in a point and four Eastern faceoff men combined to win 22 of 26 attempts as the Warriors (5-5, 3-3 LEC) evened their overall and conference records with their third win in the last four contests. Eastern improves to 8-1 all-time against Castleton (2-12, 1-6 LEC) with its sixth straight victory over the Spartans.
 
With two LEC regular-season matches remaining this coming week, Eastern is in fifth place in the nine-team conference, a game behind Keene State College (4-2) and a game ahead of Salem State University and Plymouth State University (2-4). The top six seeds qualify for the playoffs.
 
Eastern closes the regular season Tuesday at Massachusetts Maritime Academy (5-1 LEC) and at home against Keene State Friday at 7 p.m..  Salem hosts the University of Southern Maine (0-6 LEC) Tuesday and UMass Boston (4-1) Friday while Plymouth visits Castleton Tuesday and hosts conference leader Western Connecticut (6-0) Friday.
 
The top two seeds gain first-round LEC tournament byes and seeds No. 3 and No. 4 host first-round matches April 28.
 
Eastern holds the tie-breaker over Plymouth State with its 11-7 home win March 28 but Salem holds the tie-breaker over Eastern on the strength of its 7-6 win April 4 at Salem, MA.
 
Saturday, Eastern's defense held the Spartans for a stretch of 11-plus minutes in the first half and for  23 minutes in the second half, when it gave up only one goal after the break.
 
Ranked third in the LEC in faceoff winning percentage, Eastern dominated at the X. Sophomore starter Gavin DeLucia (Uncasville) was 7-for-7, junior Nathan Tranquilli (North Branford) 6-for-7 and first-year players Nicholas Morrison (Wethersfield) 4-for-6 and Jake Correia (East Lyme) 5-for-7.
 
Eastern got goals from four different players to establish a quickly 4-0 lead after 11 minutes, and after Castleton broke through against junior goalie Gregory Hilinski (Shelton), the Warriors reeled of seven more from six different players to move out to an 11-1 lead with eight minutes left in the first half.
 
Hilinski made four saves and retired after three quarters with Eastern leading, 16-2, with sophomores Luke Solari (Warwick, NY) and Ryder Casady (Westerly, RI) closing it out over the final 15 minutes.
 
Team season scoring leaders Landon Mabb (Sun Prairie, WI) and Warren Channing (Glastonbury) combined for six goals and three assists, with first-year players Ronan Donnelly  (Wantagh, NY) and Jalen Canales (South Windsor) each adding a pair and first-year player Anthony Mazza (Warwick, NY) totalling four points with three helpers and a goal.
 
With ten players collecting at least three ground balls apiece, Eastern nearly doubled Castleton's total of 24. Tranquilli won five, Morrison, first-year player Matthew Fritzsche (New Fairfield) and sophomore Jacob Corso (Guilford) adding four each. Senior Jacob Shook (Wallingford) caused two turnovers and picked up three ground balls.