Eastern University Men's Lacrosse weas picked to finish eighth in the MAC Preseason Poll. The young squad took another important step toward helping Eastern to return to the MAC playoffs with a convincing 10-2 win at King's College this afternoon. Will Johnson, Michael Hofmeister and Chris Farrar each scored two goals.

Will Johnson, one of 22 new players on the Eastern roster, put the Eagles up on an unassisted goal six minutes into the game. He set up Hofmeister in the final minute of the first period for a 2-0 edge. The Eagles held a commanding 17-4 edge in shots in the opening period.

The second period saw more of the same as Hofmeister scored his 15th of the year midway through. Matt Soldano scored from Cal Napolitano just 20 seconds later to give Eastern a 4-0 edge. Zac Ivy scored his team-best 17th goal of the year with 2:20 remaining to give Eastern a five goal lead at half. The Eagles controlled the ground in the second period as they gathered nine ground balls to four for the Monarchs. 

David Darling and AJ Ryan each played a significant part in the Eagles domination of ground balls for the game as the visiting side won eleven of 14 face-offs. Eastern continued ground ball domination through the second half and finished the game with a 33-22 edge in that critical category.

"We won the ground ball game," said Head Coach Brandon Childs, "and that possession allowed us to control the game. I also thought we cleared really well."  Childs also pointed to the play of first year goalie Aaron Benz.

Farrar scored both third period goals for the Eagles, and Johnson scored on the opening face-off of the fourth period to make it 8-0. Napolitano and Will Johnson assisted Farrar's goals and Ryan set up Johnson's tally. Soldano set up Darling with 13:26 to remaining.

King's was finally able to sneak one past Benz with 2:55 to play. Joey Wilmot answered the final King's goal with an unassisted tally in the last minute.

The Eagles (8-3, 6-1 MAC) are now tied for second with four games to play. Three of those games are against teams inside the top six in the current standings. The next test for the Eagles comes on Wednesday as they travel to Elizabethtown College for a contest against the current league leaders.