ST. DAVIDS, Pa--Up 7-2 at halftime, Eastern Men's Lacrosse held off a second half surge by the FDU-Florham Devils on Wednesday to win 8-7.

The Devils' leading-scorer sophomore Jake Higgins netted an unassisted goal with 10 seconds remaining in the game to put the Devils on the doorstep of the comeback. However, Eastern junior A.J. Ryan slammed that door closed by winning the final faceoff of the game and running out the clock.

Winning the faceoff was nothing new for Ryan Wednesday; Ryan dominated that category, winning 16-of-18 possible faceoffs.

Eastern's Zac Ivy led the Eagles with two goals, both coming in the first half. Teammate Andrew Travers started the scoring with a goal at 12:11. Matt Soldano followed with a score 49 seconds later.

FDU-Florham's Pat Colflesh responded with the first of his four goals to cut Eastern's lead to 2-1. Eastern went on to score five straight goals to take the 7-1 lead with seven minutes remaining in the first half. The Devils' Colflesh then scored with 3:28 remaining to spark a four-goal streak for FDU-Florham that stretched to the end of the third quarter.

Ron Johnson scored with 2:23 to go in the third for Eastern's only goal of the half. FDU-Florham scored twice more in the fourth quarter, but the Eagles were able to hang on for the win.

Eastern shot 14 times in the second half compared to 17 times in the first. FDU-Florham doubled its scoring attempts in the second half, going from nine shots to 18.

With the victory, the Eagles improve to 10-4 this season and a perfect 4-0 in Freedom Conference play with the final regular season game coming at home on Saturday against Misericordia. The Eagles can lock up a first round bye and the top seed in the conference with a win on Saturday or a Misericordia loss Wednesday night.

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