Following a brutal 19-10 loss against UMass Boston the previous week, the 8-6 Keene State Men’s lacrosse team headed to Mansfield to play against a 5-6 Eastern Connecticut State University team in its last regular game of the season.
The Owls had a lot riding on this game. With the Little Eastern Conference (LEC) playoffs, their standings allowed them the chance to lock into the No. 4 Seed and host a playoff game.
The first goal came just after three minutes into the game by Keene. Senior midfielder Jaheim Lancaster scored through an assist by fellow senior attacker Dylan Seymour, his seventh goal of the season. With six minutes to go, senior defender Cole Ricardi, once again assisted by Seymour, scored the second goal of the game and his 13th of the season to make it 2-0. Over the course of the next two minutes, ECSU’s Warriors put up three goals to take the lead 2-3. With just four seconds left in the first quarter, fifth-year midfielder Ben Tukey, with an assist by senior attacker Jack Ansart, scored to tie the game with his 12th goal this season.
Just a minute into the second, senior midfielder Sebastian Foresi, assisted by Ansart, scored his eighth goal of the season to put the Owls in front again. The Warriors responded not long after to tie the game back up. A turnover with around five minutes left allowed for Seymour to hit his 24th goal this season and take the lead, though the Warriors responded with their own goal to end the first half with another tie at 5-5 to close.
The first points coming out of halftime came from junior midfielder Nicholas McNulty, his 14th on the season, to once again regain the lead. The Owls managed to get a couple of turnovers in the middle, though they were unable to follow through on any of them. The Warriors scored another goal with six minutes left, tying the game up yet again. Ansart, with two minutes left, scored his 32nd goal of the season to seize the lead, though they were unable to hold it when the Warriors scored with 32 seconds left in the third to end it in this game of ties.
Going into the fourth, the Owls suffered a turnover from the Warriors two minutes in, but managed to save a score from occurring. Instead, junior attacker Nick Sullivan, assisted by fellow junior defender Austin Fitts, scored his fifth goal this season to get a leg up over the Warriors. Less than a minute later, Ansart added another goal to pull ahead by two. The Warriors did respond with a goal of their own here, but it was too little. Ansart bounced back and scored again, his third of the game, to make it a double-point lead. With another turnover with just about six minutes, Seymour, assisted by Ansart, fired the killing blow by scoring with just two minutes left to make it 11-8, the final score. Any attempt by the Warriors was squandered due to two turnovers, ending the game in a win for Keene State.
With this win, the Owls secured the No. 4 seed in the LEC playoffs, moving to a 9-6 record. They will host the Quarterfinal game next week on Tuesday, April 28, at home against the No. 5 seed Plymouth State.
Nathan Eliopoulos can be contacted at
