CASTLETON, Vt. – The Castleton University men's lacrosse team dropped a Little East Conference contest to Keene State Tuesday night, falling by a final score of 24-4 at Dave Wolk Stadium.
 
Castleton (0-7, 0-2 LEC) was outshot 50-36 by the Owls (5-0, 4-0 LEC), including a 34-13 margin in shots on goal. The Spartans committed 35 turnovers in the game, 21 caused, while Keene had 27 miscues, 11 of which were caused. The Spartans went 50 percent on the clear (12-for-24), while Keene was 28-for-34 clearing the ball. The Owls won the ground ball battle 49-35, but Castleton won the majority of face-offs in the game, 17-of-32.
 
Chris LaBonte and Collin Johnson combined for the entirety of the Castleton offense, scoring two goals apiece in the loss. Tom Grabher tallied one helper, the Spartans' only assist of the day. LaBonte also collected nine ground balls and was 16-for-29 on face-offs, while Trey Lang added four ground balls. Jason Venezia caused three turnovers and was one of four Spartans to pick up three ground balls. Maxx Ingison made three saves in goal in 24 minutes before exiting the game. Chris Wilk played the remainder of the contest, stopping seven shots in goal.
 
Keene was powered by 10 points from Joe Nutting on nine goals and one assist. Nutting also had three ground balls on the day and scored on all nine of his shots. Ben Bunnell racked up six assists and a goal for a seven-point night, while Ben Wright scored four times with one assist for five points. Cooper Cioffi (2g, 2a) and Colby Quiet (1g, 3a) had four points each, and three others had three points apiece. Quiet and Shane Malloy led the Owls with 14 and 10 ground balls, respectively, with Molloy also causing six turnovers. Four Keene goalies combined for the win, stopping nine shots as a quartet.
 
Castleton got on the board first, as an early goal from LaBonte saw the Spartans leading 1-0 just 56 seconds into the game. The lead held for nearly three minutes, but Keene leveled the score at 1-1 on a man-up opportunity with 11:40 to go in the opening quarter. The Owls then took the lead on another man-up chance, as Nutting scored his first of the game to make it 2-1 Owls. The two goals were the first of nine straight goals by Keene to end the first half, as the Owls carried a 9-1 lead into the break.
 
Keene struck first out of halftime to extend the lead to 10-1, but Castleton found the back of the net when LaBonte scored his second of the game to make it 10-2. After three more Owl goals pushed the visitors ahead 13-2, Johnson got his first of the game with Castleton on the man advantage with an assist from Grabher. The Owls scored three more times to push the lead to 16-3, before Johnson scored Castleton's final goal of the game. Keene State ended the game on an 8-0 run.
 
The Spartans return to action Thursday night at New England College at 7 p.m.