OWINGS MILL, Md.—The most successful four-year span in
Eastern University Men's Lacrosse program history had its final chapter written
on Wednesday evening in the first round of the NCAA Tournament.
The No. 19 Eagles, playing in their third NCAA Tournament in
the past four seasons, fell to the No. 7 Stevenson University Mustangs 12-5.
Eastern, graduating 11 seniors (eight starters), has gone 57-16 in the last
four years. This class is the first group Eagles' four-year head coach Kevin
Wallace has had from start to finish. “They're a great group of guys and they
showed tonight why they're so special,” he said. “They should be proud of
everything they've accomplished. I'm definitely going to miss them and now it's
time to bring in a new group and hopefully do the same things with them.”
Eastern stung the Mustangs with the first goal of Friday's
game, a transition goal by Eric Waibel with 6:38 to play in the first.
Stevenson, however, scored right away off the resulting faceoff and picked
Eastern apart through the rest of the first half to establish a 9-2 lead by
halftime. The Eagles only won one faceoff in the first half, had five failed
clears, and turned the ball over 12 times.
Wallace liked the warrior mentality his team showed in the
second half but recognized the need to put an entire game together. “We had a
bad second quarter, and that was the game,” he said. “We could have easily
given up at halftime down 9-2, but we didn't. We tied the second half 3-3. We can't
just put one-and-a-half quarters together against a top-tier opponent.
Stevenson is a great program and that's what we're aspiring to be.”
Stevenson peppered the Eagles with 52 shots. Mustang Tony
Rossi recorded a game-high three goals. Connor Curro and Matt Tompkins each
added two goals.
Eastern senior attackmen Grant Ferguson and Eric Waibel each
scored twice, and junior midfielder Dez Decker tallied the other goal and had
an assist. Jake Billera, Mark Cyron and Kenny Meury also had an assist.
Ferguson wraps up his career with 188 goals, by far the most
in Eastern history, and is the all-time leader in points at Eastern with 254.
Ferguson's attack mates of Waibel and David Darling all graduate with 100-plus
goals to finish second and third overall in the program's history. Waibel
scored 118 goals and had 30 assists for 148 career points. Darling netted 117
goals and dealt out 104 assists for 221 career points. He recorded 174 of those
points in the last two seasons.
Trailing 4-1 after the first quarter, Eastern had a
successful clear after a Stevenson miss that led to Kenny Meury finding
Ferguson for the Eagles' second goal of the game with 13:46 to go in the second
quarter. Ferguson whipped the shot from straight on, about 15-yards out. The
Eagles wouldn't find the back of the net again until 6:32 in the third quarter
when Waibel scored his second of the game, a falling low-to-high shot in
traffic.
Stevenson scored to close out the third and start the
fourth, but Eastern got two back within 45 seconds in the fourth quarter.
Ferguson slipped in behind Stevenson's defense, caught a pass from Decker,
juked the goalie and dumped in his 51st goal of the season. Eastern's Joe Palo
won the next faceoff and then Decker scored after recovering his own miss to
make it a 12-5 contest with 9:24 to play. Neither team found the back of the net
the rest of the night. Mustangs' goalie Connor Skeen recorded 12 saves, and
Eastern senior goalie Nick DiPiano finished with 16 saves.
The Eagles (15-4) will have plenty of opportunities for
younger players to step up next year and write a new chapter of success. The Eagles graduate goalie Nick DiPiano, attackmen David Darling, Grant
Ferguson, Eric Waibel and Cody Ridgway, midfielders Kyle Gillam, Andrew Travers
and Kyle Lansey, faceoff specialist Joe Palo and defenders Mark Cyron and
Jordan Norris.
Box Score
