COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.– Eastern University Men's Lacrosse (2-2) used a stifling defense, timely offense, and a dominating faceoff game to beat the Augustana College Vikings, 9-3, in the team's first game in Colorado on Spring Break. Matt Martin scored three times and added an assist in his first career start.

With senior attackman Tim Lamb out for the game, the Eastern offense had to make some adjustments and started slowly in the near freezing temperatures in Colorado.  The defense kept the Eagles in the driver's seat as it held the Vikings without a shot on goal through the first 16 and a half minutes of the game.

Bryan Goetz finally broke the ice with a powerful overhand shot with just over a minute to play in the opening quarter. The goal was the tenth of the year for the senior midfielder. The Eagles doubled the lead in the final seconds of the period when Ethan Joseph ran a clear and found Martin in transition on the crease.

The Vikings (1-2)  took advantage of two Eastern penalties to cut the Eastern lead in half just over four minutes into the second quarter. Ninety seconds later, Martin put away his second of the day on a pass from Jake Pousson to get the goal back.

With Zach Bauer dominating at the faceoff X, the Eagles got the ball right back, and Grant Smith found Trevor Gallion alone on the edge of the crease. Gallion made one good fake and dunked home his third goal of the year for a 4-1 lead. Despite holding a 23-3 edge in shots and winning all seven faceoffs int he first half, the Eagles only held a 4-1 lead at the break and would start the second half a man down.

The Eastern man-down unit did its job to start the second half, and the Eastern offense took things from there. Martin made a nice rollback move behind the cage and found a cutting Hassan Mackey cutting toward goal with 12:44 on the clock.  Mackey put away his his first career goal to put the Eagles up 5-1. Four minutes later, Mackey returned the favor, and Martin whipped in his third of the day.

Matt Auletti made a strong move on the edge of the crease to free his hands and powered home his first career goal for a 7-1 lead with two minutes left in the period. Sean Fechter closed out the third-quarter scoring with a shot from the right alley that tagged a near post corner.

The Vikings showed a little life with a pair of goals to start the fourth, but Fechter ended the rally with a brilliant bit of work just past the midpoint of the period. The first-year midfielder ducked through a pair of Augustana checks and  fired a low-to-high-shot for his second of the day and second of the year.

Bauer won the first 14 faceoffs of the game. Augustana won the 15th and final faceoff after an extended scrum with the ball on the ground.

Jameal Hadeed made a pair of saves to pick up the win in goal.

The Eagles had a 42-7 advantage in shots and picked up twelve more ground balls. Eastern plays on the same field on Friday against Colorado College.