MANSFIELD, Conn. – The Castleton University men's lacrosse team played a tight battle with Eastern Connecticut State University on Saturday, falling 15-11 on the road in Little East Conference action.
The Spartans (1-11, 1-3 LEC) fell behind 6-1 after the first quarter, but outscored Eastern (5-7, 3-2 LEC) 10-9 the remainder of the contest, including 8-6 in the second half. The Warriors held a slight edge in shots, 42-41 (27-22 on goal), but dominated the ground-ball battle 51-26 due in part to winning 23-of-30 face-offs on the day. The Spartans were successful on the clear 16 times, while committing just two more turnovers than Eastern.
Casey Meczywor had five points on a goal and four assists, while
Chris LaBonte kept his stellar season going with three goals and an assist. Meczywor also had a team-high four ground balls.
Sean Kimura had a goal and a helper, while
Colter McComas and
Cam Frankenhoff had two goals apiece.
Collin Johnson dished out two assists.
Griffin Weller and
Dawson Nalette also found the scoresheet with goals of their own.
Chris Wilk stopped 12 shots in goal for the Spartans.
Quinn O'Connor had seven points to the tune of three goals and four assists, while Zacharie Appolon had three goals and three assists himself. Brycen Kennedy had four goals and one assist. Domenic Scarano had 13 ground balls and four caused turnovers, while David Harrold went 14-of-20 in face-offs. Sam Davies and Nick Collazo split time in net, with Davies allowing three goals with four saves and Collazo allowing eight goals with seven saves.
The Warriors raced out to a 5-0 lead late in the first quarter before Castleton got on the board on the man-up, with Nalette scoring on a feed from Johnson. Eastern answered before the end of the frame, taking a 6-1 lead into the second quarter.
After Eastern pushed the gap to 7-1 to open the second, Castleton scored the next two goals of as Frankenhoff and LaBonte cut the lead back to just four goals: 7-3. Eastern negated those with two goals of its own, carrying a 9-3 lead into the halftime break.
The lead hit 10-3 early in the third quarter, but Castleton began to work its way back slowly. LaBonte's second goal of the game made it 10-4, before the Warriors moved it back to 11-4. Meczywor, Frankenhoff and McComas scored consecutively to make it an 11-7 game, but Eastern scored with less than 10 seconds to play in the third to go to the final 15 minutes leading 12-7.
Kimura made it 12-8 just two minutes into the final quarter, but the Warriors got some breathing room with three straight goals for a 15-8 lead with 10 minutes to play. Castleton started to work its way back once again, as Weller, McComas and LaBonte scored down the stretch to make it 15-11, but it was too little, too late as time ran out on the Spartan comeback.
Castleton is back in action Wednesday night at 7 p.m. when it hosts Plymouth State at Dave Wolk Stadium.
