ST. DAVIDS, Pa. – Eastern Men's Lacrosse defeated visiting DeSales University on Saturday afternoon by the final score of 8-7 to secure the top seed in the upcoming MAC Freedom Tournament.

Sophomore goalie Jameal Hadeed anchored a strong defensive performance recording 11 saves while the defense caused nine Bulldogs turnovers, led by Tyler Gehlhaus's three.

Tim Lamb led the Eastern (12-5, 7-0) offense scoring four goals on the afternoon and recording one assist. He netted two in a row in the second quarter while also dishing out an assist on the opening goal of the game.

After a relatively quiet opening five minutes, Grant Smith broke the deadlock tallying his eighth goal of the season when he finished off a pass from Lamb to give the Eagles the 1-0 advantage. DeSales came right back and took a 2-1 lead tallying back-to-back goals in the first and second quarters.

In the second quarter, Eastern tallied four goals to help take a 5-4 lead into the locker room. Lamb posted two straight markers in less than a minute to give the Eagles a 4-2 advantage. Desmond Decker and Jake Pousson closed out the scoring in quarter sandwiching a DeSales (6-8, 6-1 MAC Freedom) goal.

The Bulldogs came out fired up in the second half and tallied a quick goal to open up the third quarter and tie the game at 5-5. The score remained deadlocked at five apiece for over 12 minutes until Lamb netted his third of the day to break the tie and give Eastern the lead for good, 6-5.

Lamb opened up the fourth quarter with his fourth of the day to stretch the Eagles advantage to 7-5 with just over 11 minutes left to play. Trevor Gallion pushed the lead to three, 8-5, when he netted a marker just over a minute after Lamb.

Two late goals by DeSales made it a one-goal game with 12 seconds left to play, but Matt Lee was able to jar the ball loose on the faceoff to run out the clock and secure the victory.

Eastern will host the first round of the MAC Freedom Tournament on Wednesday, May 4th at 4 pm. The Eagles will take on the fourth seed Delaware Valley University.