The Falcons had not lost a regular season Conference game in nearly three years, and had not lost to a league opponent other than Widener since 2005. Childs was very pleased with his team's effort. "It feels great," the Eagles' first year mentor said, "we fell behind early, but the guys kept working and we executed down the stretch. Benny [O'Donnell] played the whole way in the midfield, and that was a big difference for us. We played him up front against Haverford, and we needed him to see more of the ball. He was an All-Conference Cross Country runner two years ago, so we needed him to draw on some of that training today."

Childs also cited the work of senior midfielder Jimmy Caiola who battled to take eight face offs. "Messiah's face off guy [JJ Miller] is very good," Childs said, "and Jimmy held his own against him. Even though Messiah got slightly more than half, Jimmy battled for every one, and they didn't get any transition opportunities off the face-off."

O'Donnell opened the scoring 51 seconds in on a pass from Mandia, but the hosts answered with four straight goals to take a 4-1 lead after fifteen minutes. J.J. Miller converted the fourth Messiah goal with just three seconds to play in the first quarter. The Falcons held a 10-7 advantage in shots and scooped nine ground balls to just three for the Eagles.

Eastern responded with four straight goals to take a 5-4 lead. O'Donnell scored from Mandia, and then set up Michael Hofmeister and Mandia as the Eagles tied the game at 4-4 with 4:33 to play. Ryan then scored his first of the day to put the Eagles up briefly. The Falcons knotted the game as time expired on Jeff Zeigler's second goal of the day.

The Eagles had to survive a pair of man-down situations early in the third period. They fought through a the first penalty, and almost immediately found themselves down two men for thirty seconds as two of Eastern's defenders went to the box. With the man-down situations solved, the Eagles then went on the offensive.

First year attack Matt Wagner finished an O'Donnell pass for his fifth of the year. Wagner, who played high school lacrosse just a few steps from Messiah's campus at Northern High School, scored again less than two minutes later on a man-up goal. The Falcons, down 7-5, refused to go away and scored a pair of goals in the last two minutes to send the game into the final period tied at seven.

Ryan put the Eagles up for good with just less than twelve minutes to play with his second of the day. The Eagles held the lead with confidence and Mandia put in his team best ninth of the year to give the Eagles a two goal edge with three and a half to play.

The Falcons turned up the pressure to end the quarter again, but could manage just a single tally in the waning seconds from Miller. O'Donnell and Mandia both finished the day with two goals and three assists, while Ryan and Wagner scored two goals each. Senior goalie Zach Rivest stopped nine shots to earn the win.

The Eagles (2-2, 1-0) returns to action Monday with a home game against former PAC rival Neumann College.

Box Score