Box Score Western Connecticut Downs Southern Maine 16-9
GORHAM, Maine -- In a must-win game for both sides, the visiting Western Connecticut State University Colonials clinched a berth in next week's Little East Conference tournament by defeating the University of Southern Maine Huskies 16-9 Saturday afternoon on Senior Day at Hannaford Field.
The win was the Colonials fourth in the last six games after going winless in their first nine outings. The Colonials finished the regular season 4-11 overall and 3-3 in LEC play to secure the fifth seed in the upcoming tournament. The Huskies finished the season 6-7 overall and 1-6 in league play.
Junior Nate Wilson (Norwich, Conn.) led the Colonials offense scoring four goals and dishing out one assist. Seniors Anthony Nejame (Danbury, Conn.) and Nick Foley (Walpole, Mass.) each had two goals and one assist, and junior Jesse Beatty (Redding, Conn./Joel Barlow) posted two goals.
Senior goalie Kevin Seery (East Lyme, Conn.) posted seven saves before giving way to sophomore Patrick Tynan (Somers, Conn.) with less than two minutes to play.
Senior Burleigh Desjardins (Brunswick, Maine) paced the Huskies offensively with three goals. Junior Jaymz McStowe (Plymouth, Mass./Plymouth North) and sophomore Seth Wing (West Gardiner, Maine/Gardiner Area) had two goals apiece.
Rookie goalies John Bossi (Billerica, Mass.) and Zach Bessette (Readfield, Maine/Maranacook) split the goaltending duties for USM. Bossi made three saves in the first half, and Bessette stopped five shots in the second stanza.
Junior Austin Watts (Westbrook, Maine) gave the Huskies an early lead scoring the first goal of the game just 38 seconds into the contest. Beatty tied the game for the Colonials at 11:58 before the scoring went cold. McStowe gave the Huskies their last lead (2-1) at 2:59, but the Colonials closed the quarter with three consecutive goals to take a 4-2 lead. Sophomore Patrick Mulligan (Stratford, Conn./St. Joseph's) ignited what would be a string of five straight Western goals 40 seconds after the McStowe goal. Wilson tallied his first two goals before the end of the quarter.
Foley and junior Tim Hanlon (Mountain Top, Penn./Crestwood) opened the second quarter with goals 40 seconds apart for Western to expand the lead to 6-2. Wing and McStowe gave the Huskies some momentum with goals at 8:03 and 6:13 respectively. Beatty and junior John Foristall (Danbury, Conn.) swung the momentum back to the Colonials with goals in the final 2:16.
The Colonials effectively put the game away opening the third quarter with three goals in the opening 5:11. Nejame, Wilson and Foley scored to give the visitors an 11-4 lead before Desjardins countered for USM. Sophomore Tyler Jamison (West Gardiner, Maine/Gardiner Area) closed the gap to 11-6, but Wilson scored his fourth goal of the day to make it 12-6 after three quarters.
The teams traded goals in the fourth quarter leaving USM unable to close the gap below six.
Western Connecticut out shot Southern Maine 50-31, and won the battle of the ground balls, 41-31. Senior Tom Dellamarggio (Stratford, Conn./St. Joseph's) and junior Ryan Caldwell (Stratford, Conn./St. Joseph's) had five ground balls apiece to lead the Colonials. USM senior Spencer Tuttle (Kennebunk, Maine/Cheverus) led all players scooping up seven ground balls.
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