CASTLETON, Vt. – The Castleton University men's lacrosse team put forth a valiant come-from-behind effort against the University of Southern Maine on Saturday, but was unable to complete the comeback as the Huskies topped the Spartans 15-12 at Dave Wolk Stadium in Little East Conference action.
 
Castleton (4-11, 1-5 LEC) trailed 10-4 at halftime but worked the deficit back to just two goals—14-12—with more than eight minutes to play. The Huskies (4-10, 2-4 LEC) held off the Spartans from there, tacking on an insurance goal to boot. USM controlled the possessions in the game by winning 20-of-30 face-offs. Castleton had a 32-31 edge in ground balls while USM had a 44-40 edge in total shots with a 31-25 edge in shots on goal.
 
Chris LaBonte netted five goals for Castleton in the contest, setting a new career-high for a single game. Cam Frankenhoff added a hat-trick of his own and Sean Kimura scored once with two assists. Casey Meczywor had a goal and an assist, while Ethan Esposito and Xavier McKenna had a goal each. Ian Edgar and Liam Evarts added assists. Meczywor and Christopher Dindino tied for a team-high with six ground balls apiece and Jared Fontaine caused a pair of turnovers. Dindino stopped 16 shots in goal.
 
The Huskies were paced by an eight-point game from Schuyler Wetmore who had six goals and two assists. Omar Contreras and Andrew James had three goals each, with Contreras adding two assists and James adding one. Nick James had two assists. Cayden Poisson-Bragdon had a game-high 10 ground balls and won 16-of-26 face-offs for USM. Addison Dietz made 13 saves in the win.
 
Southern Maine got off to a fast start, scoring the first five goals of the game and outscoring Castleton 7-1 in the first quarter. The Spartans stiffened up in the second quarter, with LaBonte scoring the first goal of the quarter before USM tacked on two more for a 9-2 lead. LaBonte's second of the frame made it 9-3 and a score later in the quarter by Frankenhoff put the score at 10-4 going into halftime.
 
After a goal by the Huskies to open the third quarter, Castleton got back-to-back scores by LaBonte and McKenna to make it 11-6. Wetmore scored yet again for USM to stop Castleton's streak, but the Spartans posted three unanswered goals to end the third quarter trailing just 12-9. Frankenhoff, Esposito and Meczywor helped halve the lead back to just three going to the final frame.
 
The two sides alternated scores to begin the final quarter, with USM striking first before LaBonte found the back of the net for a 13-10 score. Another USM goal made it 14-10, but LaBonte scored on a man-up chance and Kimura followed with a spinning score to pull Castleton within two, 14-12, with 8:30 left on the clock. The Huskies' defense buckled down from there, with Dietz making four saves in the final eight-plus minutes to keep the Spartans off the board. USM tacked on an insurance goal with 5:45 to play to give the game its 15-12 final score.
 
The Spartans honored their 10 seniors prior to Saturday's contest in recognition of their hard work and dedication to the program over the previous four years. Those seniors were Meczywor, Fontaine, Kimura, LaBonte, Matt Mumford, Finn Miller, Dawson Nalette, Tim Kittler, Michael Dean and McKenna.
 
The Spartans are back in action on Tuesday evening at 4 p.m. when they host UMass Boston at Dave Wolk Stadium.