The win secures a berth in the first ever Freedom Conference Championships for the Eagles (6-9, 4-2 Freedom).

The Eagles kept the ball in the Arcadia end for the first five minutes of the game. In that time, the Knights were able to get the ball twice, but each time the Eastern defense was able to break the clear. Courtney Reinhold opened the scoring with her first of three goals with slightly more than 25 minutes to play int he first. 

The Eagles controlled the second draw of the game, but the two teams traded possessions before Eastern doubled its edge five minutes later when Allie Fultz found a cutting Jocelyn Paul in front of the goal. Fultz made it 3-0 on a pass from Shannon Wilcox with 18:18 on the clock.Wilcox finished with a goal and three assists. Fultz had a goal and two assists.

Kendall Rood connected with a cutting Reinhold for a 4-0 lead before Arcadia was finally able to beat Corbitt on a nice chance from Jenna Crothers off the draw control. Gauthier and Reinhold scored the final two goals of the half to give the Eagles a 6-1 halftime lead. Corbitt made five of her eight saves in the first 30 minutes, but the real story was the dominance of the Eastern defense against Arcadia's primary offensive weapons.

"Courtney [Reinhold] and [Allie] Fultz were great today defensively." said Head Coach Camrin Azzarano, "How many times did they check a ball free and win the ground ball? The timing of our slide was much better today, and the whole defense came together." In answer to Azzarano's rhetorical question, Reinhold finished with 7 caused turnovers and six ground balls, and Fultz had five caused turnovers and four ground balls. The caused turnover numbers are season-highs for both players.

The two teams exchanged free position goals to start the second half, and then Corbitt was assessed a yellow card for dangerous play and the Knights were given an empty net free position shot with Kristy Getsay starting four yards behind the shooter. Getsay and Fultz were able to block the initial free position shot, but the Knights were awarded a second opportunity with Getsay in goal and Crothers scored it. 

The Knights would not get closer. Paul scored on a crease roll and Wilcox made the score 9-3 on a free position shot to the lower corner. Paul and Rood scored on either side of Jaclyn Feffer's unassisted tally to put Eastern up 11-4.

Reinhold controlled the ensuing draw and set up the prettiest goal of the day with a drive and a dish to Wilcox on the right side. Wilcox looked at goal and whipped a crisp pass to a running Rood on the opposite side. The junior captain had a lot of goal to look at and she dropped a well-placed shot in for her second of the day. Moments later, Reinhold started a similar sequence. Only this time, Gauthier caught the pass from Wilcox and scored Eastern's final goal at the midway point of the second half.

Arcadia scored the final two goals of the day, but the Eagles held possession to secure the win. If FDU-Florham beats King's on Saturday, Eastern will be the second seed and will host the Monarchs in the first round of the Freedom Championships. If King's pulls off the upset, the Eagles will be the third seed and will travel to FDU for the first round game.

The Eagles finish their regular season on Thursday with a non-league test at Gwynedd-Mercy College.

Box Score