KEENE, N.H. – Picking up their third win over four games, the Keene State College men's lacrosse team easily handled the Eastern Connecticut State University Warriors, 17-7, to open Little East Conference play for the 2025 season on Saturday afternoon.

Records

• Keene State: 3-4 (1-0 LEC)
• Eastern Connecticut: 3-3 (0-1 LEC)

Postgame Interview (Coach Theriault)
Postgame Interview (Jake Dubiel)

How it Happened
KSC scored their quickest goal to open a game on the season in the contest, as after Jaheim Lancaster caused a turnover on an ECSU clear, Jack Ansart assisted Giacomo Tedone for the goal, 1:08 into the matchup. The Warriors' goalkeeper, Gregory Hilinski, saved the next shot that he faced in goal on Adam Scala, but later in the opening quarter, KSC netted their next three shots on goal over 43 seconds to jump to a 4-0 lead. The first of the three goals came after KSC once again caused a turnover on a ECSU clear, as Nicholas McNulty caused the turnover, leading to Jake Dubiel scoring his first of four goals in the game. Just five seconds later, the Owls tacked on another goal as Gabe Pereira won the faceoff and picked up his first point of the season as he assisted Rex Maccarini for the goal. Pereira won the ensuing faceoff that led to the third of the three goals as Connor Woods tallied his first point of the year with a goal to take the four-goal lead. Warren Channing of ECSU tallied his first of four goals in the game with 2:28 left in the opening quarter and Hilinski made a pair of saves the rest of the quarter to cut the Owls lead to 4-1 leading into the second quarter.
 
Ansart looked to increase the Owls' lead back to four 40 seconds into the second quarter, but after his shot rang off the post, the Warriors scored a pair of goals over the next two minutes as ECSU cut the Owls' lead to one. Hilinski and the Owls' goalkeeper, Dylan Florian, traded a save over the next few minutes, but Maccarini answered back for the Owls with a goal with 9:20 remaining in the half. Hilinski made a pair of saves and saw a shot from Sebastian Foresi hit the post, but he was unable to save the next shot on frame as Maccarini tallied his third goal of the game, 3:40 after his first. A minute and a half later, Maccarini scored his third straight goal as Ben Tukey tallied his first assist of the season and the Owls increased their lead back to four, up 7-3. Hilinski made three saves over the final three minutes of the half in goal, limiting the Owls' lead heading into halftime.
 
Florian opened the second half with a pair of saves, but he was unable to save the third in a row as Channing scored his third goal of the game, 4:05 into the third. Following another save from Florian and a caused turnover on defense by Dylan Fadale for the Owls, Dubiel scored his second goal of the game on the other side of the field to put KSC back up by four. The rest of the quarter, Hilinski made three more saves, while Florian made one and each team tallied one more goal with Dubiel scoring his third of the game for KSC and the Owls took a 9-5 lead into the final 15 minutes of play.
 
In the final quarter, KSC scored eight goals over the 15 minutes, the most in a quarter of a game since the Owls beat Vermont State Castleton University, 20-7 on April 17, 2024, when KSC scored eight goals in each of the first and fourth quarters. Cole Ricardi opened the scoring in the quarter after he collected the ground ball on the opening faceoff with a goal, 46 seconds later. With 12:49 remaining, KSC tacked on another goal after Ty Cougler caused a turnover, leading to Woods assisting Ansart to put KSC up 11-5. After Cougler another turnover for KSC, this time on a ECSU clear attempt, it directly led to fellow defender Aidan Donohue collecting the ground ball, taking it into the Warriors' offensive zone, and firing a shot past Hilinski for his second career collegiate goal 58 seconds after Ansart's goal. Channing responded with a man-up goal for the Warriors for his fourth goal of the game, just 24 seconds after Donohue's goal to cut the Owls' lead back down to six. 1:05 later, Tedone assisted McNulty for his seventh goal of the season and KSC scored another goal only six seconds later, as just like in the first quarter, Pereira won the ensuing faceoff and assisted Maccarini for his fifth goal of the game goal to put the Owls up 14-6. Over the next six minutes, the Owls tallied two more goals as Dubiel scored number four on the day, and Ricardi assisted on Scala's fourth goal of the year to increase the lead to 16-6. In the final four minutes of the game, each team scored one more goal, with Fabio Tirado scoring for the Warriors and Sean Bosworth scoring his first of the year for the Owls. Entering the crease for the with 5:15 remaining, Ryan Valentine made three saves for KSC, while only allowing one goal, as the Owls easily picked up the 17-7 win in the end.
 
Inside the Crease

• With the win, KSC improves to 26-17 in the all-time series between the two teams. KSC has won the 17 most recent meetings, dating back to 2014, as the Owls have outscored the Warriors 312-131, with KSC averaging 18.4 goals per game and ECSU averaging 7.7 over the win streak.
• Heading into the game with three goals on the season, two of which coming in the Owls' last game, Dubiel recorded four goals in the contest, for six over his past two games.
• Maccarini once again led the Owls on the attack with five points from his five goals.
• Five Owls recorded two points, with Woods, Tedone, Ricardi, and Ansart recording a goal and an assist each, while Pereira recorded two assists.
• The Owls easily had their best game of the season on faceoffs in the win as they went 19-for-27 (70.1%).
• Florian recorded seven saves while allowing six goals (53.8 SV%) in his 54:45 in goal, while Valentine made three saves on four shots (75.0 SV%) in his 5:15 in net for the Owls. Hilinski recorded 17 saves in his complete game, while allowing 16 goals (51.5 SV%).
• KSC had their best game on clears on the year as they went 19-for-20 (95%), while holding ECSU to 16-for-23 (69.6%), the lowest mark for an opponent so far this season.
• The Owls defense recorded a season-high 18 caused turnovers, with Cougler leading the way with six, and Fadale close behind with four.

 
Up Next


Keene State's next contest is on short rest as they recently added their next game to their schedule as the Owls will host Saint Joseph's University (Maine) on Tuesday, March 25, at 4:00 PM.
The Warriors have a week off before their next contest, as their next game is their first LEC game at home of the season on Saturday, March 29, at 1:00 PM against Salem State University.