MADISON, N.J. – Eastern University Men's Lacrosse locked up a home game in the upcoming MAC Freedom Tournament with a 13-8 win at FDU-Florham. The Eagles scored the first six goals of the game and weathered a four-goal second-half burst from the Devils to claim their fifth league win of the season.

How It Happened:
The Eagles (9-6, 5-0) came out of the gates flying. After Colin Piper scored four minutes into the game, Eastern scored four goals in a three-minute stretch to build a 5-0 lead. Trent Ashton and Mark Buannic each scored twice in the burst. The Eagles had a 17-2 edge in first quarter shots and led 5-0 going to the break. The Eagles won all six face-offs in the first quarter.

That domination at the X continued to start the second quarter when Zach Bauer won a clean draw and went straight to goal for his third tally of the year. Bauer finished the day 7-of-9 on face-offs with two goals. Anthony Firmani was nearly as good. The first-year specialist went 12-for-16.

The Devils (6-6, 2-3 MAC Freedom) finally broke through after a failed clear to trim the Eastern edge to 6-1, but Antonio Yeoman powered home his only goal of the day with a little more than nine minutes to play in the half. Sam Emig converted in from the the goal on a good feed from Ashton to put the Eagles up 8-1. FDU grabbed a goal back to close the gap to 8-2 going into halftime. Eastern won all 12 first-half face-offs. The Devils fired 13 shots in the second quarter.

Piper batted home the first goal of the third quarter after David Thomas had his shot saved. The Devils then ran off four goals in a row to pull within three with 14:12 left to play in the game. The Eagles won their first four league games by five total goals, so a sense of deja vü kicked in when the Devils started to get the home crowd involved with the scoring string.

Bauer stopped the run with his second of the day. He won a clean draw and eight seconds later the Eastern lead was 10-6.  Ashton made it 11-6 a minute later after Firmani won a draw. The Devils scored with eight minutes to play, and went up a man on the play. Brett McDonald made a huge play in man-down defense to jump out of goal and pick off a pass. He finished with 13 saves.

Thomas ended any comeback chance with a goal on a Piper feed with four minutes to play.  Chris Durning led the Eagles with eight ground balls. He and Buannic were each credited with two caused turnovers.

Coach Wallace Says:
"This was a good road win. We came out of the gates firing and playing really well as a team. Our defense was very good in the first half. We gave our offense plenty of opportunities. Dominating the face-off x helped as well. Brett was really good in goal and Trent was a difference-make when we had the ball and on the ride."

Up Next:
The Eagles finish the regular season with a pair of home games after the Easter break. After hosting Delaware Valley on Wednesday, the Eagles will host unbeaten DeSales on Saturday. The winner of that 1:00 pm game, regardless of midweek results, will be the top seed in the upcoming MAC Freedom Tournament.