ST. DAVIDS, Pa. – Men's Lacrosse use a six-goal first quarter mixed with solid defense to beat Misericordia 12-5 on Saturday afternoon. The Eagles held the Cougars to just two goals in the opening half and shut them out entirely in the fourth quarter.

Sophomore goalie Jameal Hadeed was outstanding as he anchored a strong defensive effort making 18 saves on the afternoon. It was the lowest goal output of the season for the Cougars who were held scoreless on three separate occasions for ten minutes or longer.

"I think the guys came out ready to go and had a lot of energy at the start of and throughout the game," said Head Coach Kevin Wallace. "The defense was great all day and we as a unit talk about holding teams to seven goals or fewer, and they take a lot of pride in that statistic."

Peter Alloway got the game started off quickly as he won the opening faceoff and went straight down field and scored to give Eastern (8-5, 3-0 MAC Freedom) a 1-0 lead. Ryan Mitchell stretched the Eagles lead to 2-0 when he tallied his first goal of the season less than two minutes after Alloway's.

Already leading 2-0 Bryan Goetz, who returned to the lineup, stretched the lead to 3-0 when he tallied his eleventh of the season. Eastern would add two more by the time Misericordia (6-1, 1-2 MAC Freedom) got on the scoreboard to make it a 5-1 game. Desmond Decker would close out the first quarter scoring barrage notching a goal with just over a minute and a half left to play in the first to make it 6-1 after one.   

The second quarter was a defensive battle as each team traded one goal each bringing the score to 7-2 after the first half. Hadeed was outstanding in the second quarter totaling eight saves on 14 total shots by the Cougars.

"Jameal has been rock solid for us all year long," continued Wallace. "I think we have become reliant on him almost to a fault, but he answers the call every time and steps up to make big save after big save."

Misericordia rallied back in the third quarter trimming the Eagles lead to just three. The Cougars outscored Eastern 3-1, scoring twice in the opening four minutes of the quarter. Jake Billera added a marker when he finished off a Bryan Mizell pass to stretch the lead to 8-4 with just under nine minutes left to play in the third.

Eastern's defense took over in the fourth quarter after a goal by Misericordia in the final 30 seconds of the third cut the deficit to just three, 8-5. Hadeed totaled seven saves in the final quarter to aid in the fourth quarter shutout while the defense as a whole combined to cause five turnovers.

"We came out a little flat to start that third quarter, but I think we were able to regroup nicely and come together as a team," stated Wallace. "Our players knew they could do better and know they will get every teams best shot, and they have to weather that storm and overcome it."

Tim Lamb and Mark Buannic each tallied two goals in the fourth quarter to help put the game out of reach. Lamb bookended the goal scoring in the fourth netting one with just over nine and a half minutes left to play and effectively sealed the win when he scored his third of the game with less than two minutes left.

For the game, Eastern outshot Misericordia 36-34 but only placed 21 on net to the Cougars 23. The Eagles did dominate both groundballs and faceoffs picking up 33 groundballs and winning 15 faceoffs on the day.

"This was a big win for us, but we know we have a lot more business to take care of moving forward," concluded Wallace. "We have Manhattanville coming up, and we know they will give us their best shot, but we need to be mentally prepared because we have our eyes on a NCAA game and we can't get there unless we take care of business the next few weeks."  

Eastern travels to Manhattanville on April 20th for a 7 pm contest.