DALLAS, Pa.– Eastern University Men's Lacrosse raced to an 8-1 lead and held on for a 12-11 win at Misericordia in an important early season MAC Freedom test. The two programs have played in five of the seven and each of the last four MAC Freedom Championship games. Eastern lost both games in Dallas in 2017.

How It Happened:
The Eagles (6-6, 2-0 MAC Freedom) had to fight off an early man-down situation after a failed clear to start the game, but Brett McDonald came up with a save and the Eagles grabbed the early lead on Colin Piper's first of five goals. David Thomas earned the assist on the play.

Piper found Thomas for a 2-0 lead just before the midpoint of the first quarter. After the Cougars cut the lead in half, the Eagles scored two goals in quick succession for a 4-1 lead at the end of the first quarter. Antonio Yeoman scored his first of three on the day with 4:07 on the clock. Nate Hawkins ran a clear and appeared to be slowing up the game for substitutions near the midfield line. Yeoman faked like he was gong to step out and instead ran toward goal. When no Misericordia defender stepped to stop him, he dunked home his first of three goals.

Zach Bauer set up the next goal with a face-off win. The ball wound up with Ethan Joseph near midfield. Bauer saw his opposite working back toward midfield for a substitution and went to goal. Joseph found him on the run. Bauer then drew a defender and fed Piper on the doorstep for a 4-1 edge. 

Piper scored three of the next four goals and set up teh other to help the Eagles to an 8-1 lead with five minutes left in the half. 

The Cougars shrunk that lead with two face-off goals in a minute to go to the intermission at 8-3. Eastern had a 33-14 edge in first-half shots and an 8-5 edge in face-offs.

The Cougars (4-6, 0-2) flipped those numbers in the second half. The teams traded goals to start the half before the Cougars reeled off four-straight around the quarter break to pull with in a  goal at 9-8 with 13 minutes to play.

Yeoman scored from Sam Emig just over a minute after the fourth Cougar goal to put the Eagles up two and David Thomas made it 11-8 with eight and a half minutes left. The Cougars answered with another face-off goal. Yeoman scored what would prove to be the game-winner with five minutes to play on a pass from Hassan Mackey. 

The Cougars scored two more goals and had a chance to tie with a minute to play, but McDonald made his 13th save of the day to preserve the win. 

Coach Wallace says:
"We played well early and controlled the game. In the second half, our transition defense was suspect, and they took advantage of their opportunities. We need to learn how to put teams away when we have the opportunity. Piper played really well. He finished early for us, and Antonio finished late when he had the chances."

Up Next:
The Eagles are at Wilkes on Wednesday afternoon. That game is at 4:00 pm. At one point it was listed as a 7:00 pm start, but it is an afternoon game.