Eastern Conn. Jumps Out Early, Downs Southern Maine 16-8

            MANSFIELD, Conn. -- The Eastern Connecticut State University Warriors scored the first six goals of the game and went on to post a 16-8 victory over the visiting University of Southern Maine Huskies in a Little East Conference men's lacrosse game Saturday afternoon at the Mansfield Complex.

            The loss snapped the Huskies' two-game winning streak and dropped them to 3-6 overall and 1-1 in the conference.  The Warriors got back to .500 with the win at 5-5 overall and 1-1 in LEC play.

            Senior Nate DelGiudice (Oakland, Maine/Messalonskee) had a four-point day for the Huskies with two goals and two assists.  Classmate Seth Wing (West Gardiner, Maine/Gardiner Area) also had two goals.  Senior goalie Zach Bessette (Readfield, Maine/Maranacook) made 17 saves in the USM cage.

            Senior Connor Wyllie (Somers, Conn.) paced a balanced ECSU offense that had seven players score at least two goals.  Wyllie had three goals and one assist while classmates Matthew Rougeot (Cheshire, Conn.) and Harrison Urda (Milford, N.H.) each had two goals and two assists.  Sophomores Anthony Choronzy (Clinton, Conn./The Morgan School), Brett Chin (Framingham, Mass.) and Ed Moran (West Haven, Conn./Notre Dame) and junior Samuel Watson (Trumbull, Conn.) had two goals apiece.

            Junior goalie Chris Gorman (Shrewsbury, Mass.) played 56:50 allowing seven goals and making 11 saves to earn the win.  Sophomore Taylor Huta (Waterford, Conn.) came on to play the final 3:10 giving up one goal and stopping three shots.

            Up 2-0 on goals from Wyllie and Chin in the opening five minutes, the Warriors exploded for four goals in a span of 2:35 in the latter stages of the quarter to open up their 6-0 lead.  Urda opened the salvo with an unassisted marker at 5:13.  Sophomore Joe Testa (Southington, Conn.), Wyllie and Choronzy all scored within a 40-second span to give the Warriors a six-goal edge with 2:38 remaining.

            Wing got the Huskies on the board scoring a man-up goal off a feed from DelGiudice before the quarter came to a close.

            Watson and USM rookie Joe Cullinan (Contoocook, N.H./Hopkinton) traded second-quarter goals to make it 7-2 at halftime.

            Eastern Connecticut increased its advantage to 11-3 in the third quarter before the teams put on an offensive display in the final quarter combining for 10 goals.

            USM rookie Steve Gilbert (Litchfield, Maine/Oak Hill) led all players with seven ground balls and won 12 of 23 faceoffs.  The Warriors piled up a 57-35 edge in shots and won the battle of the ground balls 38-24.

            Southern Maine returns home on Tuesday (4 p.m.) to host Husson University in a rescheduled game from March 10.  Eastern Connecticut travels to the University of Massachusetts Boston for a Little East Conference game next Saturday (3 p.m.).

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