DANBURY, Conn. - After dropping its season opener to visiting Keene State last weekend, the Western Connecticut State University men's lacrosse team got off to a sluggish start on Saturday afternoon at the Westside Athletic Complex. However, the Colonials came to life and erupted with a nine goal run in the third quarter en route to a 23-12 victory over the University of Southern Maine in a Little East Conference matchup. 

WestConn's offensive explosion was headed by sophomore attackman Trey Aronow (Holbrook, N.Y) paced WestConn with a game-high seven goals.  Senior attackman Eric Caldwell (East Moriches, N.Y.) added five goals and two assists. Junior attacker Donald Schaumloffel (Wantagh, N.Y) notched four goals and a helper.  Senior Timothy Yannucci (Coram, N.Y.) chipped in with a hat trick and three assists. 

Senior Tristan Dundas (Abbotsford, British Columbia) buried three goals to go along with a pair of assists to lead the Huskies. Rookie Andrew Lawrence (North Yarmouth, ME) also notched a trio of scoring strikes and one helper. 

"It was great to be back on the field and rebound after Keene," stated WestConn head coach Ryan Cavanagh.  "Southern Maine played hard the entire game. It took us awhile to get it going but we settled in and were productive on the offensive end of the field. It was nice to have Trey (Aronow) back on the field he played a great game. Johnathan (Russack-Baker) also played a great game at the face-off x."

The hosts pierced the scoring column when Aronow ripped a low-righty rocket into the twine from 10 yards away less than three minutes into the contest. The Huskies answered with a man-up goal before Caldwell backed in on a defender, whipped past him with a spin move, and connected on a righty backhander, giving the Colonials a 2-1 advantage. Southern Maine retaliated with a pair of nearly identical goals, both feeds from behind the cage, for quick stick shots from the edge of the crease to seize a 3-2 lead to end the first quarter. 

Aronow would notch the hat trick shortly before senior middie Zak Santoemma (Madison, Conn.) dodged down the right alley and hit a wide-open Caldwell at point blank range to deadlock the count at 6-6 midway through the second stanza. The squads would continue to exchange goals.  

Sophomore midfielder Benjamin Hawthorne (Manorville, N.Y.) gathered a loose ball, broke inside the restraining line and threaded a nifty feed to junior midielder Ryan Hirt (West Islip, N.Y.), who found the back of the net with one second left on the clock before halftime, evening the score at 8-8. 

The visitors jumped ahead 9-8 just 2:04 into the second half. The ensuing WestConn flurry began when Aronow fired home yet another shot. Caldwell added a pair of goals during the spurt which included a sweet behind-the-back blast into the top corner to make it 12-9. The Colonials tacked onto the advantage with three straight man-up goals. Two more from Aronow followed by a skip pass connection to junior Jesse Weaver (Highland, N.Y.) assisted by Caldwell, widening the gap to 15-9. Santoemma used a quick one-on-one face dodge to round out the third period barrage out at 17-9. 

The Colonials would cruise the rest of the way. Senior goalkeeper Perry Cassidy (East Setauket, N.Y) improved to 1-1 and recorded 16 saves for WestConn, while junior Josh Cahill (Bristol, CT) took the loss and recorded seven stops. Freshman goalie Nathan Plourde (Otisfield, ME) came on in relief and added three saves.   

With the victory, the Colonials improved to 1-1 overall and 1-1 in league play, while the Huskies fell to 0-3 and 0-1. WestConn returns to action when they travel to conference nemesis Plymouth State University next weekend. The squad's face-off on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. Southern Maine travels to Salem State on Wednesday at 4 p.m.