MADISON, N.J.—Eastern University Men's Lacrosse cruised to a 16-6 win at FDU-Florham on Tuesday night to complete its fourth consecutive perfect Freedom Conference regular season. The Eagles' last conference loss came on April 13, 2011 at Widener University.
The Eagles, who have won the last three Freedom Conference Championships, enter the postseason as the No. 1 seed and will host the semifinal round on April 29 against a to-be-determined opponent.
Last year's conference Player of the Year Grant Ferguson led the Eagles with four goals. Ferguson upped his team-high total to 41 goals this season. Sophomore Tim Lamb recorded his first career hat trick, netting his third goal of the game with five minutes to play in the third quarter.
Eric Waibel added two goals. Waibel leads the Eagles with 20 goals scored against conference opponents. Seven other players added a goal: David Darling, Desmond Decker, Jake Billera, Bryan Goetz, Kyle Gillam, Andrew Travers and Elliot Moore. Moore's goal was the first of his rookie campaign.
The FDU-Florham Devils, who entered the game with a 4-0 conference record, stung the Eagles with a goal 46 seconds after the opening faceoff. It took Eastern four minutes to get on the scoreboard, but Ferguson scored an even strength goal to open the floodgates. The Eagles scored four goals each period and had a stretch of seven straight goals spanning from the end of the first quarter to two minutes into the third quarter. Eastern led 10-2 at that point. FDU-Florham got one back with 10 minutes left in the quarter, but Lamb scored his third of the day five minutes later to start a five-goal streak for the Eagles.
The Devils scored three assisted goals from 4:14 to 3:06 in the fourth, but it was too little, too late.
Eastern went 2-for-4 on extra-man opportunities and killed all three of FDU's man-up situations.
Nick DiPiano tallied eight saves in goal for the Eagles. Against conference foes, he's allowed 20 goals while recording 48 saves. Eastern out-scored its conference opponents 97-27 this season.
Next Wednesday, April 29, the Eagles will host the Freedom Conference semifinals. The Eagles will the await the results of Saturday's Freedom schedule to find out who their opponent, the No. 4 seed, will be.
Box Score
