PLYMOUTH, N.H. – The Castleton University men's lacrosse team wrapped up the regular season on Sunday afternoon with a Little East Conference loss at Plymouth State by a final score of 13-9.
 
The Spartans close out the regular season with a mark of 0-11 with a record of 0-5 in LEC play, claiming the No. 6 seed in the upcoming LEC Tournament. Castleton will face the No. 3 seed, WestConn, on Tuesday at 4 p.m. in Danbury, Conn. Plymouth State finishes the year with a 3-4 overall record and 2-3 record in LEC play to earn the No. 5 seed and will face fourth-seeded Eastern Connecticut State on Tuesday.
 
Plymouth outshot Castleton 49-30, though Castleton held advantages in ground balls, 26-24, and face-off wins, 18-7. Four of Plymouth's goals came on the man-advantage, as nine Spartan penalties helped Plymouth earn the victory. The Spartans went 17-of-20 on the clear, while Plymouth was nearly perfect at 21-of-22.
 
Chris LaBonte had five points by way of four goals and an assist, while Collin Johnson and Conner Ladabouche added one goal and one assist each. LaBonte also led the team with seven ground balls while going 18-of-24 on face-offs. Tom Grabher also netted a goal, with Dawson Nalette and Hunter Sarro scoring once apiece as well. Trey Lang had an assist. Maxx Ingison had five ground balls in addition to 10 saves in goal in the loss.
 
Nolan Burke racked up seven points on five goals and two assists for the Panthers, while Mike Fleury and Mike Donnelly had three goals apiece. Riley Roy added Plymouth's two other scores. Jack Bonazzoli had nine ground balls, seven caused turnovers and went 7-for-25 at the face-off X. Robert Porter earned the win in goal, making nine saves.
 
Castleton ran out to an early lead, notching the first three goals of the game over a six-minute stretch. LaBonte, Johnson and Ladabouche scored in succession to make it a 3-0 lead, but Plymouth responded with two goals later in the first quarter to narrow the lead to 3-2. LaBonte and Sarro snuck in back-to-back goals with less than three minutes to play in the opening 15 minutes, but Plymouth scored with one minute left on the clock to narrow the lead back to 5-3. The lead was extended one last time to end the quarter, as Grabher beat Porter with just one second remaining to make it 6-3 Spartans after one.
 
Plymouth scored the only two goals of the second quarter to cut the lead to 6-5 at the break, but LaBonte completed the hat trick out of the half-time break to give Castleton a 7-5 edge. Back-to-back goals by Burke for Plymouth leveled the score for the first time since Castleton's opening goal, 7-7, but Nalette gave Castleton the lead once more with a goal to make it 8-7 through three quarters.
 
The Panthers dominated the fourth quarter, opening the final 15 minutes with five unanswered goals over a nine-minute stretch to give Plymouth a 12-8 lead. LaBonte netted his fourth goal of the game to make it 12-9, but Roy tallied an insurance goal for Plymouth late to give the game its final score of 13-9.