WILLIMANTIC, Conn. – The Eastern Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team built a six-goal lead through three quarters and held on to post a 13-12 non-conference victory over Rochester Tech Sunday afternoon at Thomas Nevers Field.

Eastern (10-3), which had lost to Rochester Tech (8-5) by 21 goals three years ago, has won four straight. Rochester Tech (8-5) had won two in a row and three of four entering the match.

Eastern took the lead for good with 65 seconds left in the first quarter and carried a six-goal lead into the final quarter before the Tigers made a late charge that left them one goal shy. RIT kept the Warriors off the board after Mathew Savage's (Southington) fourth goal of the match with 11 minutes left pushed Eastern's lead to 13-7.

Rochester scored the final five goals of the match, cutting the gap to the final one-goal margin with 51 seconds left. Eastern sophomore Eric Vasil (Southington) won the ensuing faceoff -- his 20th in 29 tries on the afternoon – and the Tigers were whistled for a slashing penalty eight seconds later and with the help of an extra-man opportunity, the Warriors were able to run out the clock.

After the visitors scored the first two goals of the match, Eastern ran off six of the next seven to take a 6-3 lead one minute into the second quarter. Four of the goals came in a span of two minutes late in the first quarter. With Eastern leading 4-3 after one quarter, junior attackman Vinnie Tornatore (Norwalk) scored off the second-quarter faceoff o a feed from Matthew Savage, and junior midfielder Zach Malouf (Norwich) connected for his only goal 62 seconds later on a pass from junior midfielder Maxim Fantl (West Hartford) that gave Eastern a 6-3 lead.

Rochester was able to stage its fourth-quarter comeback despite losing six of eight faceoffs to Vasil, who entered the week ranked sixth in faceoff percentage and first in ground balls. Vasil had a career-high 18 ground balls in the match. In 13 games, he has collected 148 ground balls – 51 more than the previous season record – and has won 71.1 percent of his 256 faceoffs.

In addition to his game-leading total of four goals, Matthew Savage also set up three goals with assists and picked up six of the team's 54 ground balls. Senior defenseman Mike Silvestrini (Guilford) had five ground balls and senior defenseman Steve Lane (Groton) four.

Eastern senior goalie Kyle Savage (Southington) made 18 saves – 11 in the second half – to post his 40th career win. Savage became the winningest goalie in program history Saturday in a 20-7 win over visiting UMass Boston.

Rochester was an ECAC tournament qualifier last year and received votes in this past week's national poll. Eastern's defense was able to limit the Tigers' top three season goal leaders to a combined three goals. Freshman a6ttack AJ Tingle led the Tigers with three goals, two coming in the final nine minutes. Junior defenseman Dan MacRae picked up nine ground balls to lead Rochester, with sophomore long-stick midfielderMJ Kiekebelt and junior midfielder Adam Lehmann collecting six each.

Eastern visits Western Connecticut State University in a Little East Conference match Tuesday at 4:00 p.m.

2009-04-19