ST. DAVIDS, Pa.- Eastern University Men's Lacrosse overcame a slow start
to top the visiting King's College Monarchs 14-5 in the the first
Freedom Conference game for both teams. Eric Waibel scored six times to
lead the Eastern attack. Dave Darling became the second player in
Eastern history to score 100 career goals.
The Eagles had the first possession of the contest, but Monarch goalie
William Pokorny made a nice save on a Dave Darling shot from the edge of
the crease, and the Monarchs gained the ball and worked persistently for
a go-ahead goal. After nearly four full minutes of possession, the
visitors found the game-opening goal on Brock Johnson's first of two
goals.
One minute later, Waibel dodged his way to the front of the crease and
put away his first of the day, 16th of the season and 90th of his
career. The game did not stay knotted for long. Monarchs' Ryan Dambach found
Johnson open 15 yards out, and Johnson ripped home his second of
the afternoon.
The Eagles then appeared to have an inside track on equalizing, but on
two occasions in a minute, Tim Lamb hit the post and the Monarchs were
finally able to gain possession and clear. Dambach raced down the right
alley to put the Monarchs up 3-1 just over 12 minutes into the game.
In the four years that the Freedom Conference has been an entity for
men's lacrosse, Eastern has not lost a league game. While the game was
still young, things were not going well for the home team. The Eagles
appeared flustered in the clearing game and overly anxious on both
defense and in the attack. The Monarchs, on the other hand, appeared to
be gaining confidence and momentum.
Waibel answered with his second of the day, but still the Eagles seemed
unsettled. When King's committed a penalty with 13 seconds left in the
period, it appeared that the Eagles would hold the ball and start the
second period up a man with the ball. While that did ultimately happen, it only happened after a careless turnover and a big save from senior
goalie Nick DiPiano.
In outscoring the Eagles 3-2 in the first,
the Monarchs had a 14-9 advantage in shots and broke Eastern's normally
steady clear three times. While all that was good news for the Monarchs,
the bad news was that the lead was one and that the game was still
young.
Waibel scored the first three goals of the second period to
put the Eagles up for good. The last of those goals came in transition
after an interception by Tyler Gehlhaus. Gehlhaus picked up his first
assist of the season on the play.
Grant Ferguson dodged down the
goal line for his 25th of the year to give the Eagles a 6-3 edge with
5:21 left in the half before King's freshman Cam Trick scored a
beautiful goal off a face-off win to stop the bleeding and close out the
scoring for the half. Trick's 17th of the year came off a feed from
Ryan Boornazian. Eastern out-shot King's 15-5 in the second period.
Even
up 6-4, the Eastern coaching staff was not pleased with their team's
first half performance. The Eagles responded with eight of the final
nine goals in the second half.
Darling opened the scoring 74
seconds into the half with a strong move from behind the goal for his
100th career tally. Darling and Ferguson are the only two players in
program history to reach the 100-goal plateau. Darling, who averages
more than four points per game this year, added three more tallies in the
fourth quarter to lift his season total to 26.
The Eagles had
much of the play but were unable to increase their edge to four until
Jake Billera caught a Ferguson pass and snuck a low shot underneath
Pokorney for an 8-4 lead. Forty seconds later, Kyle Wilk dodged down the
left alley for the final Monarch tally of the match. Waibel caught a
pass from Dez Decker, wheeled and fired home his sixth of the day and
95th career tally to put the Eagles up 9-5.
The Eagles finally
converted a man-up chance in the waning moments of the third. Ferguson
caught a ball on the crease from Travers and buried it for his 26th of
the season.
Billera made it 11-5 with his second of the day and Darling closed out the scoring with the final three goals of the afternoon.
Nick DiPiano made 13 saves to pick up his eighth win of the year. Pokorney made 16 saves in the loss.
Eastern returns to action at Ursinus College on Saturday.
Box Score
