DANBURY, Conn. – The Castleton University men's lacrosse team fell to Western Connecticut State on Saturday, dropping a Little East Conference matchup against the Colonials by a final score of 27-7.
 
The Spartans (0-9, 0-3 LEC) were outshot by WestConn (3-2, 3-2 LEC) by a margin of 68-36, though Castleton won the face-off battle 21-15. WestConn held a 37-30 advantage in ground balls in the game, and turned it over only eight times to Castleton's 26.
 
Chris LaBonte and Hunter Sarro each tallied hat tricks for the Spartans, while Trey Lang had a goal of his own. LaBonte had a game-high seven ground balls and was 16-of-25 on face-offs. Jason Venezia had four ground balls while five players total caused a turnover for the Spartans defensively. Maxx Ingison made 12 first-half saves before giving way to Chris Wilk, who stopped five shots in the second half.
 
Stephen Cicchetti led all players with six goals on the day, with Eric Caldwell reaching the six-point mark by way of four goals and two assists. Trey Aronow had a goal and four assists for the Colonials, and five WestConn players added two goals each. Three Colonial goalies combined for the win, with Perry Cassidy notching eight saves to lead the way.
 
WestConn opened the game with three unanswered goals before LaBonte got Castleton into the scoring column, but the Colonials answered with a six-goal run that pushed the lead to 8-1 midway through the second quarter. After LaBonte's second goal made it 9-2, WestConn rattled off four more goals heading into halftime to make it 13-2 at the break.
 
After the Colonials potted a pair of goals out of haltime, Castleton answered with two of its own, as Sarro netted his first of the game and LaBonte finished off the hat trick, making it 15-4. Seven straight goals by WestConn allowed the hosts to pull away, establishing a 22-4 lead just minutes into the fourth quarter. Sarro found twine again for his second of the game, before WestConn went on a 4-0 run to push the score to 26-5. Lang stopped the run with his first goal of the game, beating the goalie on the man-advantage. After a final WestConn score, Sarro concluded the game's scoring with his third goal of the game to make it 27-7.
 
Castleton is back on the turf Wednesday evening at 4 p.m. at Dave Wolk Stadium when it hosts Eastern Connecticut State.