ST. DAVIDS, Pa - Eastern Men's Lacrosse dropped a tough 12-7 decision to nationally ranked No. 19 Ursinus College on Wednesday afternoon. The Eagles got five combined goals from Tim Lamb and Mark Buannic but couldn't stop the high flying offense of the Bears. 

"I think we learned a lot about ourselves from this game," said Head Coach Kevin Wallace. "We beat ourselves today with some of the mistakes we made but we were right there, and I think our players recognize that." 

Eastern (5-5) came out fired up and jumped out to an early 1-0 lead less than two minutes into the game. Jake Pousson took the ball behind the net and waited patiently to find an open player. Pousson hit Jake Billera, who ripped a shot through the legs of Ursinus (9-1) goalie Brian Neff. Three straight goals by the Bears gave them a 3-1 advantage after the opening quarter. 

Lamb answered right back in the second quarter when he netted an unassisted goal with just over 11 minutes into the quarter to cut the deficit to just one, 3-2. After Ursinus stretched the lead back to 4-2, Buannic pulled the Eagles back within one when he finished off a pass from Billera to make it 4-3 right before halftime. 

"We proved that we are capable of hanging with a very good and tough team," continued Wallace. "We were right there, and I think our players recognized that, but we have to do a better job of keeping our momentum going. Ultimately we didn't do that to start the third quarter, and it hurt us." 

Ursinus scored six third quarter goals opening the quarter with four in a row to stretch its lead to 8-3. Trevor Gallion cut the deficit to just four when he tallied his only goal of the game finishing off a Pousson pass to make the score 8-4. However, two goals by the Bears to close out the quarter, coming less than a minute apart, extended their lead to 10-4 heading into the final quarter of play. 

Lamb netted a man-up goal with just over seven minutes left to play to pull the Eagles within five, 10-5. Turnovers and missed opportunities hampered the Eagles down the stretch failing to tally another goal until under the two minute mark. Buannic tallied his second goal of the day when he converted on a man-up opportunity to pull Eastern within five at 11-6. Lamb scored nine seconds later to make it a four-goal game, 11-7, and leave the door slightly open for a comeback with just over a minute and a half left to play. All of that ended, however, when Ursinus scored with a minute to play to make the score final at 12-7. 

Overall Eastern was outshot by Ursinus 37-26 with 14 of those shots on goal. The Eagles totaled 17 turnovers for the game and only won nine of 23 faceoffs. 

Jameal Hadeed finished the game with 12 saves while Lamb scored three goals to record his fourth straight multi-goal game. Buannic finished the game with two goals bringing his total to 14 on the season and tally his third straight multi-goal game. 

"This part of the season is over and a new season starts for us on Saturday," concluded Wallace. "We went 5-5 in out-of-conference play and lost to three nationally ranked programs (No. 4 York, No. 9 Gettysburg, and No. 19 Ursinus) but were right there in two of them. We have to learn, and we have to move on to the part of the season that matters and remember how we played against these teams because we will see a top 20 team come NCAA's." 

Eastern opens MAC Freedom play on Saturday when they host Wilkes University at 2 pm.