Eastern University Men's Lacrosse had nearly ten days to prepare for their MAC opener with Widener. The practice paid off as the Eagles scored six straight goals to rally from a 5-1 first-half deficit for a 7-5 home win. Will Johnson scored three times and added an assist to pace Eastern.

Widener scored the first two goals of the game before Eastern was able to tally with a man-up goal from Chris Farrar. Even though Eastern held a 5-4 edge in shots, the Pride held a 2-1 lead after the opening quarter.

Things looked bleak at the start of the second for the home side as Widener scored on the opening face-off and added two more to grab a 5-1 lead with 9:46 to play. The fifth Widener goal came on a two man advantage.

Things started to turn a bit for the home side with just under six minutes to play. First year attack, Zac Ivy dodged his defender from behind the goal and buried a short shot for his sixth goal of the year. The Eagles closed the gap further on a man-up goal from Matt Wagner. After a quick series of passes, Will Johnson found Wagner on the back side of the crease, and Wagner tucked it home to cut the deficit to 5-3 with a minute to play before half.

Eastern held a 14-12 lead in both shots and ground balls at the half. In another encouraging note for the home side, first year goalie Aaron Benz saw the ball clearly as the second period progressed and he made five of his 11 saves. 

Out of the halftime break, it seemed that the Eagles had closed the gap further when David Darling took the face-off straight to goal, but the first year specialist was called for a crease infraction and the goal was disallowed. Nonetheless, Coach Childs' young squad seemed to take encouragement from their face off wins. Childs said, "David did a great job on the face-offs. For us to win that battle was really important. Widener tried a lot of different things, and he kept winning them." Darling won 60% of his face-offs for the day.

After a huge ground ball battle in the corner that Ron Johnson won for the Eagles, Michael Hofmeister pulled the trigger on man-up chance at the 12 minute mark of the third to close the gap to one. The senior captain caught a pass from Ivy in front of the goal and hit the upper corner for his fifth of the year. Five minutes later, Hofmeister played the role of provider as he set up Will Johnson for an even strength goal.

The Eagles took advantage of the momentum and scored the go-ahead goal just seconds later after AJ Ryan won his face-off battle. This time, Will Johnson finished a pass from Cal Napolitano. The Pride responded to the deficit with a flurry of activity in front of the Eastern goal, but the Eastern defense was able to force Widener to tough angles and Benz was equal to the task with three big saves to close the period. 

Darling won the opening face-off, and Eastern held the ball through much of the fourth period. Hofmeister carried much of the load in running the offense and in dodging in the box for the Eagles. Childs commented on his senior captain's effort saying, "Hof was the man today. He was tough and not afraid in any way, and our younger guys fed on that. We won some huge ground balls, and we were able to possess against tons of pressure. I'm really proud of all the guys effort today, but he stands out."

The Eagles relied on Ron Johnson and sophomore midfielder Joey Wilmot in clearing, and the two were able to help the escape the defensive end with speed and good decision making. Wilmot's final clear came as he sliced through four defenders to barely beat the clock at the one minute mark. 

Eastern picked up the final goal of the game as Ivy blocked a clearing attempt and Will Johnson walked the ball in just before time expired.

Childs wrapped up the day saying, "I felt like our time in preparation for this game was well-used. We asked the guys to change the way we practice, and they responded with a tougher mentality. We stayed disciplined, but we had good focus and we battled. We are looking to build on this."

The Eagles travel to Lycoming this Saturday for another MAC Challenge. 

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