The Eastern University men's lacrosse team found themselves in a tough spot against Marywood midway through the second period. It seemed that Andrew Minnick had scored to cut a 3-1 deficit in half, but a stick check found the speedy attacker's stick to be a quarter inch short. The Eagles would have to kill a three-minute non-releasable penalty. With another penalty two minutes into the kill. The already-tired Eastern defenders allowed just a pair of Pacer shots in a full minute down two men. Buoyed by the courageous effort of their man-down squad, the Eagles scored four straight goals on the way to a 9-6 win.
Nick Mandia scored with three minutes to play in the half to cut the Marywood lead to 3-2. The Eagles jumped out with three goals in the first five minutes of the second half. Minnick tied the game on a brilliant individual effort 90 seconds in. Matt Colello scored his second of the day on a long shot to give the Eagles a 4-3 lead.
Eastern finished the run with one of their prettiest goals of the year on a counterattack goal. After a quick transition out of the midfield, Michael Hofmeister caught a pass right on the doorstep on the left side. Hofmeister drew the defense to his side of the net before flicking a late pass onto the stick of Michael Ryan who tucked away his first of the day.
Up two goals, it looked as though the Eagles might put some distance between themselves and the upstart Pacers. The Marywood defense, however, buckled down in front of goalie Jessie Habich and took away the Eastern attack for the rest of the third. The Pacers scored a pair of goals just eight seconds apart to tie the game at five with thirteen minutes to play.
Coach Levis then called a time-out and challenged his team to execute the little things. Mandia scored his second of the day on a run from behind the cage and a low shot to give the Eagles a lead they would hold for good. Minnick then popped in his second of the day on what looked like a change-up into the upper corner of the goal. Ryan then helped the Eagles stretch the advantage to three goals with his second of the day when he picked up a rebound directly in front of the cage.
Marywood worked the ball for their final goal of the day on a nice combination that finished with Anthony Tuscai firing a shot just inside the post. Eastern goalie Zach Rivest made five of his twelve saves in the final fifteen minutes to preserve the win. Mandia completed his hat trick with another driving goal out of a double team for his 13th of the year.
Coach Levis was pleased with the way his team responded to the adversity of the first half. First year defenseman Matt Mandia led the Eagles with five ground balls while causing a team-high four turnovers. Levis said, "I'm very proud of the way we responded and of the result in this game. We have a couple non-conference games coming up and some very big league games as we make a push for a play-off spot."
