"Before the game, in the locker room, Coach told us that 'losing today was an impossibility.' said Ben O'Donnell, "We believed him and came out fired up." The senior from Syracuse, NY took the words of his coach to heart with four goal and two assist performance to lead the Eagles to a convincing 16-7 win.
The crease attack man scored twice in the opening five minutes of the game as the Eagles jumped to a quick 3-0 lead. Nick Mandia, who finished with three goals and three assists on the day, scored the second goal of the game. Since his return from injury, O'Donnell has seven goals and a pair of assists in two Eastern wins.
After a Neumann timeout, the Knights responded and slipped a shot past Zach Rivest to cut the Eastern lead to 3-1. The Eagles then closed out the first quarter with three straight goals to secure a solid 6-1 lead at the first break. O'Donnell picked up his third of the day with just over three minutes to play on a pass from Matt Colello. Colello then took advantage of a man-up situation just 20 seconds later when he tucked away a Mandia pass.
The Eagles picked up their sixth goal after Nate Trunfio picked up a dead ball behind the crease with eight seconds left. Trunfio eluded a pair of defenders at slipped the ball to the back post for Michael Ryan who converted with just over three seconds on the clock. The Eagles out-shot their guests by a 21-4 margin in the opening 15 minutes.
The Eagles continued to push out of the first intermission and were able to build a 10-3 lead at the half. Mandia finished a pair and Hofmeister and Trunfio each collected single tallies as Eastern launched 15 shots to just five for the Knights.
Dave Mojica started the scoring off a pass from Jimmy Caiola just two minutes into the second half. Caiola then answered a Neumann goal with a beautiful unassisted strike of his own. The junior face-off specialist had a dominating day at the center mark as he won 17 of his 20 face-offs to help the Eagles retain possession throughout. O'Donnell and Hofmeister finished the scoring in the third. Trunfio picked up his second of the day to start the fourth period and Chris Nelson scored his first collegiate goal off a Mojica pass to finish the scoring for the day.
Zach Rivest made 12 saves in goal for the Eagles. In the defensive end of the field, the Egles contined to force turnovers and attack loose balls. Caiola and Matt Mandia each picked up seven ground balls to lead the team in that catagory. The win lifts Eastern to a 4-1 mark in PAC play. With their next win in the league, the team will secure a home game for the first round of the playoffs.
Box Score
