ST. DAVIDS, Pa.- Eastern University Women's Lacrosse jumped to an early lead and pulled away to a 23-14 Freedom Conference win over Manhattanville College. Courtney Reinhold and Allie Gauthier led the way with five goals apiece.

The Eagles scored four times in the opening seven minutes of the contest. Reinhold scored her first of the day to open the scoring and then Kendall Rood tallied three straight for the early lead. Jocelyn Paul and Shannon Wilcox picked up assists in the early run.

Manhattanville's Cassandra Honovich scored two of her game-high seven goals to close the gap, but Emmy Fisher put away a tough angle quick-stick finish to push the Eastern lead to 5-2. That lead, however, was short-lived as the Valiants controlled the ensuing draw and cut the deficit to 5-3 on a Brooke Marcimo goal.

"I really liked how we started the game with good aggressiveness and momentum." Head Coach Camrin Azzarano said, "We then gave away the ball for three quick goals and had to take a timeout. Out of the the timeout, we did a much better job taking care of the ball." 

Wilcox, Reinhold, and Gauthier scored in quick succession to put the home side up 8-3. Gauthier's finish came on a nice feed from behind the cage from Fisher. After Honavich tallied her third marker of the day, the Eagles pounded home five straight goals to push the advantage to 13-4 with just under two minutes to play. Gauthier scored three more goals in the run. Rood and Fultz also scored. Rood, Paul, Wilcox, and Fultz picked up assists in the critical run.

The Valiants controlled the final three draws of the half and were able to put in a pair of goals to grab some momentum going to the intermission.

The two teams combined for ten goals in the first ten minutes of the second half. Reinhold scored the first of the half on a beautifully executed breakaway, and Fultz added another with 26 minutes to play. As sometimes happens in games of momentum, Manhattanville scored four times in an 84 second span. 

"We really want to look at doing a better job of sliding early enough to cut off drives" Azzarano noted about the run, "Though the game never got close enough to be dangerous, we had to fix some things defensively. We will continue to work on those things as we go forward." 

The Eagles were finally able to grab possession and Paul broke the run with another unassisted tally at 22:24. Fultz scored one minute later and Fisher dropped in her second of the day on a great transition pass from Rood only nine seconds after that.

Reinhold and Paul each scored twice more and Gauthier finished the Eastern scoring at the six minute mark. 

"We had some really pretty goals today." Azzarano added, "We asked them to do some things, and they listened and executed some really great plays on offense." Eleven of the Eastern goals came as a result of an assist.

The Eagles (4-6, 2-0 Freedom) have won three straight games and will face another tough non-league opponent in Rowan University on Thursday.

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