The second long road trip of the week was an important one for the Eastern University men's lacrosse team. The Eagles put together a run of five straight goals late in the game to break open an 8-8 tie and earn an important 13-9 win at Shenandoah. Michael Ryan led the Eagles with four goals and an assist on the day.
The Eastern attack registered their largest output of the year, as Ben O'Donnell returned to the line-up with three first half goals, and Matt Colello and Nate Trunfio scored a pair of goals each. The Eastern coaching staff, however, attributed much of their offensive success to the work of the attacking players in defending. The coaches pointed to the thirteen broken clears as good evidence that the Eastern attackers were helping to win the ball back in the attacking half of the field. The additional chances earned by those turnovers proved to be very important in helping the Eagles to generate 13 goals.
After falling behind early,the Eagles scored a pair of unassisted strikes just seconds apart when Ryan picked up his first and Jimmy Caiola gave the visitors their first lead of the day. Teddy Rogers scord his first goal of the afternoon for Shenandoah to tie the game with four and a half minutes to play in the opening period. O'Donnell scored his first of the afternoon on a Michael Hofmeister pass, but Rogers tied the game at three just seconds later.
The second period was a good one for the Eagles. Eastern scored four of the first five goals in the period to open up a 7-4 lead. Hofmeister played the role of play-maker as he set up two more goals for a season-best three assists. O'Donnell scored a pair of goals in the run. Ryan and Colello also scored in the run. Rogers scored his fourth and final goal of the game right before the half to cut the Eastern edge to 7-5.
The Hornets rode that momentum at the start of the second half to tie the game at seven with 11:22 remaining in the third period. The Eagles, who were still playing short-handed due to injury had to step up to stop the run. Nate Trunfio scored that goal with six and a half minutes left in the third.
Shenandoah then tied the game at eight with three minutes left in the period. From there, the Eastern team put together one of their best strings of the year.
Ryan came off a screen up top and finished a 15 yard shot off a Nick Mandia pass from behind the cage as the Eagles scored on a thirty-second man-up opportunity. Up 9-8 going into the final period, the Eagles continued to ride hard in the attacking zone and attack the Hornet cage.
Colello scored his seventh goal of the year to start the Eastern scoring in the fourth. Ryan picked up his fourth of the game less than thirty seconds later to reopen the three goal edge. Trunfio scored his second of the day midway through the period. Nick Mandia set up that goal. Mandia then scored his 18th goal of the year off a Dave Mojica pass only 23 seconds later to close out the scoring.
Goalie Zach Rivest made seven saves for the game to secure the win for the Eagles. The Hornets were picked second in the PAC Pre-Season Poll. The win gives Eastern, now 3-1 in the league, a strong chance to host a play-off game in just their third year since returning to varsity status. The Eastern staff said of the game, "This was a very big win for us. We knew going in that Shenandoah was a team we had to beat if we wanted to host a playoff game. The guys really responded well."
The Eagles have four league games remaining and return to action Saturday with a home game against Neumann College.
Box Score
