The Eastern University men's lacrosse team played Wednesday's rain-soaked home game against King's College with heavy hearts. The loss of former teammate Dave Mojica was on many of their minds as they forged a 7-0 halftime lead and held on to win 12-4 in a game with major playoff implications.

The Eagles led 2-0 after the first period on goals from Michael Ryan and Matt Wagner. Ryan would finish with 3 goals and an assist, and Wagner ended the day with two goals and a helper. Eastern enjoyed an 11-6 advantage in shots. 

The second quarter made all the difference. The Eagles fired 20 shots and won the ground ball battle 12-3 as they forged the seven goal edge at the break. Nick Mandia had three goals and an assist in the period. He would finish the afternoon with four goals and two assists. Mandia is the Eastern career leader in points and assists. He trails a pair of teammates on the career goals list. 

The Eastern assist leader set up fellow senior Josh McClelland, who plays primarily in the defensive side of the midfield, for his first goal of the year on a nice transition play. Jimmy Caiola played a major role in helping the Eagles to keep possession as he won six of nine first half face-offs and 14 of 20 for the game.

The five goal burst put the Eagles in the driver's seat for the second half. Head Coach Brandon Childs was very pleased with his team's hustle on the day. "We won the ground ball battle," he said," and Evan [Ridington] was really good getting in their on face-offs. I thought our hustle really translated into possession today and once we had it we made good choices." Ridington finished the day with a team-high nine ground balls and four caused turnovers.

The guests broke up the shutout just seconds into the second half on Curtis Reinard's seventh of the year. Wagner finished a Mandia pass in transition to put the Eagles back up by seven with 12:48 to play. Pat Dempsey and Matt Colello each scored single goals in the second half to finish the scoring for the Eagles.

Zach Rivest played the first 53:47 of the game and gave up just three goals while making eight stops. Dillard Brooks finished the game for the Eagles. Tim Cassi stopped 17 shots for the visitors.

The Eastern players will have a week to recover from the emotions of the day and the weekend before they take on Widener in another important Conference contest next Wednesday.

Box Score