DANBURY, Conn. – The sixth-seeded Castleton University men's lacrosse team saw its season come to a close Tuesday night, falling in the Little East Conference quarterfinals to the No. 3 seed, Western Connecticut State, by a final score of 18-7.
 
The Spartans finish the year at 0-12, while WestConn advances to the semifinals of the LEC tournament with a 5-2 record. WestConn held a 63-31 edge in shots and a 36-21 edge in ground balls, though Castleton won the face-off battle 15-12.
 
Hunter Sarro netted his second hat trick of the season, scoring three goals to lead the Spartans. Conner Ladabouche added two goals and one assist, and Collin Johnson added two goals of his own. Jason Venezia had five ground balls, with Ryan Palmisano adding four after winning 9-of-18 face-offs. Maxx Ingison made 18 saves in goal for the Spartans in the loss.
 
Three WestConn players had three goals or more, highlighted by Eric Caldwell's four scores and two assists. Donal Schaumloffel had three goals and a helper, with Trey Aronow added three goals of his own. Max Gironda had two scores for the Colonials. Ryan Kinsley, Matt Peters and James Bringman had four ground balls each, with Kinsley and Peters causing two turnovers apiece. Perry Cassidy earned the win in goal, making eight saves and allowing six goals in 53 minutes.
 
WestConn got on the board just 58 seconds into the contest, but Castleton responded 67 seconds later when Sarro knotted the game at 1-1. The Colonials took the lead back briefly after, but Johnson scored to tie the game at 2-2 before Ladabouche put the Spartans ahead 3-2 with 6:45 to play in the opening frame. The Colonials scored back-to-back goals from there, however, scoring twice to take a 4-3 lead after the first quarter.
 
The run continued for WestConn, as the hosts scored six unanswered goals in the second quarter before scoring to open the third quarter as well. In total, the Colonials tallied nine consecutive goals to take an 11-3 lead early in the second half. Johnson tallied his second score of the game just more than two minutes into the third quarter to stop the run, but WestConn scored three straight once again to push the lead to 14-4. Castleton then received back-to-back goals by Sarro, making it 14-6, but WestConn tallied one more before the end of the quarter to carry a 15-6 lead into the final quarter.
 
WestConn extended its lead to 18-6 by tallying three straight goals to open the fourth quarter, though Ladabouche notched the final goal of the game to cap the scoring at 18-7.