ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Eastern University Men's Lacrosse earned an 11-3 win in a rematch of last year's MAC Freedom Championship game. The Eagles scored 70 seconds into the match and pulled away to a 4-1 edge and grabbed the lead for good with three goals ina  four minute burst midway through the first period, but goalie Jameal Hadeed was the story of the day. The senior stopped a career-high 25 shots while only allowing two goal in his 56 minutes of work.

While the Eagles never trailed in the game, Hadeed's afternoon did not get off to a great start. The Cougars scored on their first two shots on goal. Patrick Kellish scored a man-up goal from the edge of the crease to tie the game at 1-1, and then Paul Hanrahan found a corner to cut the Eastern lead to 4-2 with 3:40 to go in the first. Hadeed then turned away the next 25 Misericordia attempts on goal. While some of those shots were perimeter attempts from tight angles, there were more than a few close-range stops on shots that seemed to be certain goals.

"Jameal was amazing." Head Coach Kevin Wallace said after the game. "As great as his shot stopping was, he made several other great plays to to battle for ground balls and back up shots that helped us win. This is obviously a big game on our schedule, and he stepped up."

The Cougars (8-1, 1-1 MAC Freedom) entered today's game having won 15 consecutive regular season games. They also won both games against Eastern in Dallas last year. The Eagles (5-6, 2-0) had taken a different tack in the non-league schedule. Eastern's six losses came against teams with a combined record of 50-18. Four of those teams are in the USILA Top 20. Wallace knew that the non-league schedule would test his young team. He hoped that the challenge of battling nationally ranked teams would toughen his squad for key tests in the MAC Freedom.

Sean Fechter opened the scoring for the eagles on the first possession of the game. The Cougars answered with a man-up goal before Hassan Mackey found Matt Auletti on the right side for a 2-1 edge. 

The Cougars called a timeout with just under six minutes left in the first to set up a defense. Mark Buannic figured out what they had done and ducked inside for his 19th goal of the year and a 3-1 lead. Less than a minute later, the left-handed Auletti surprised everyone with a right-handed shot to the upper corner for his second of two on the game. Auletti then found a cutting Mackey on the crease with 10 seconds to play in the quarter for a 5-2 lead.

Fechter scored the only goal of the second quarter.

The second half was all Hadeed. Auletti completed his hat trick midway through the third, but the show was at the other end. Hadeed, who has stopped 58 percent of the shots on goal this year, made six saves in the final seven minutes of the third period. He had seven more in the first seven minutes of the fourth.

The Eagles made the game secure with a two goals thirty seconds apart in the fourth. Sam Emig scored man-up and Jake Billera put away his 17th of the year. Jimmy Kurnik and Colin Piper each scored their first goals of the year to extend the Eastern lead to 11-2. Misericordia scored the final goal of the game with 9 seconds left.

"We still have things to work on," Head Coach Kevin Wallace said after the game. "We don't want Jameal to have to be that good. We made some bad decisions with the ball in the second half and had breakdowns we don't want to see, but this is a good win. We need to make sure we keep getting better."

Chris Durning caused three turnovers and collected a team-best seven ground balls and Zach Bauer won 11-of-17 faceoffs.

The Eagles travel to DeSales on Saturday for another MAC Freedom contest.