WILKES BARRE, Pa.-- In three years of Freedom Conference competition for Eastern University Men's Soccer, the annual match against King's College has always been tight. In 2008, the contest ended in a 1-1 draw. King's won 1-0 in 2009, and Eastern earned a 1-0 win in 2010. So looking forward to tonight's game at King's, one could assume that the match would likely be low scoring and close. Nothing could have been further from the truth as Eastern scored five times in the first half en route to a wild 8-2 win in the Freedom Conference opener for both squads.

Brandon Reichart scored three times, and Braden Gross added a pair to pace the Eastern attack. King's (6-2-1, 0-1 Freedom) lost the opening coin toss, and had to try to attack into a stiff breeze and driving rain. The Eagles (6-3, 1-0) used the wind to their advantage as they were able to keep the ball in Monarch territory for extended periods of time and exploit transition opportunities when the Monarchs did escape.

Reichart opened the scoring with an 18 yard blast off the post after a cut back move on the wing in the 10th minute. Seven minutes later Reichart played the role of provider with a quality serve from the right hand side to Gross in front of the net. Gross knocked in the short shot for his fifth of the year. Reichart headed home a corner kick in the 27th minute for a 3-0 edge. 

With the home side reeling a bit, a pair of substitutes made their presence felt with good goals in the last six minutes of the half. Caleb MacMain scored his first of the year after winning a hard tackle near the edge of the box, and Josh Martin roped a laser to the upper window for his third of the year.

In a remarkable display of efficiency, the Eagles scored on five of their first six shot attempts. Head Coach Mark Wagner was very pleased with the way his team opened the game.

"I think our guys did a great job of decision making," he said, "the made good choices about when to play in front of them and when to take the space behind and be a little more direct. The conditions were tough, but we handled it very well."

The Monarchs closed the gap to 5-1 on a corner in the 49th minute, but Gross knocked home his second of the day on a Dan Shields cross 33 seconds later to bump the edge back to five.

The scoring slowed down a bit as the Eagles absorbed pressure from a King's squad that was committing significant numbers into the attack. Shields scored Eastern's 7th goal on a rebound after a shot from Pablo Villeda.  King's answered two minutes later to cut the deficit to 7-2 before Reichart converted a breakaway for his first college hat trick.

The Eagles look to extend their three game winning streak on Tuesday with a home test against Penn State-Brqndywine before hosting DeSales in a rematch of last year's Freedom Conference Championship match on Homecoming Saturday.