ST. DAVIDS, Pa. – Eastern Men's Lacrosse dropped its season opener to visiting York College (Pa.) on Wednesday afternoon by a score of 9-2. The Spartans outshot the Eagles by a total of 33-17 for the game and 21-6 in the first half.

"We have to keep moving forward and simply just need to execute," said Head Coach Kevin Wallace. "We can't turn the ball over and make simple mistakes. As a team, we need to all get on the same page."

Eastern (0-1) got the first good look of the game, but Jake Billera's shot hit the post leaving the score deadlocked at 0-0 early in the first quarter. York (1-0) tallied the first two goals of the game in the opening quarter to take a 2-0 lead into the second.

The Spartans struck again in the second quarter, tallying two goals just over two minutes apart to stretch their lead to 4-0. With just over seven minutes left to play in the first half, the Eagles earned a man-up opportunity. Mark Buannic capitalized on a Brian Mizell pass to get Eastern on the scoreboard and make it a 4-1 game. York took the momentum right back, however, scoring again with just over two minutes left to play in the half to take a 5-1 lead into the locker room.

York effectively put the game out of reach in the third quarter, tallying three goals in a span of just over four and a half minutes to stretch their lead to 8-1. Tyler Gehlhaus scored the last goal of the day when he forced a turnover and ran coast-to-coast with it before burying it in the back of the net to make the final score 9-2.

"We struggled in the ride and clearing aspect of the game," continued Wallace. "The game today came down to simple execution and I think the first game jitters got us today. We had players who haven't played as much in the early stages of their careers as they did today and I think that hurt us a bit. We gave York a lot of chances through turnovers and mistakes, and they are too good a team to do that against. We will get it fixed and move on to Swarthmore."  

Overall, Eastern committed 25 turnovers, eight of which came in the first quarter and seven in the fourth quarter. Menawhile the Spartans committed just 15 turnovers for the entire game. Neither team was extremely efficient on their extra man opportunities, as York went 0-2 and Eastern went 1-3.

Jameal Hadeed made 13 saves on the afternoon for the Eagles, while Caleb Abney and James Anderson combined for nine saves respectively.

"Jameal kept us in the game today," concluded Wallace. "He made some big-time saves for us back there, and the score could have been a lot worse had it not been for him."  

Eastern travels to Swarthmore on February 20th for a 3 PM game.