ST. DAVIDS, Pa. – Eastern University Men's Lacrosse rallied from an early three-goal deficit, but the visiting Ursinus College Bears scored the final two goals of the game to earn a 12-10 win in a tight battle on Olson Field. Colin Piper led the Eastern attack with two goals and two assists.

How It Happened:
The No. 9 Bears (3-0) came out quickly. Despite losing the first tow faceoffs of the game, the Bears forced turnovers and built a 3-0 lead only five minutes into the game. Anthony Firmani won the ensuing faceoff and the Eagles settled into an offensive possession. David Thomas found Piper, and the senior attack ripped home his first of the day from a tight angle. 

Adam Grant earned possession back with a save and Thomas capped a very long possession with a strong run down the right alley. Thomas scored his first two goals of the season.

After the Bears went up 4-2 with four minutes left, Piper tallied for his fifth of the year to pull the Eagles back to within a goal. That goal started a run of four-straight for the Eagles. Thomas scored to tie the game after Logan Barlok forced a turnover and Nicholas Fanelli put in his second of the year after Ethan Joseph played a quick restart after an offsides violation by the visitors. Joseph fired a 60 yard pass to the freshman attack who walked in and scored with 50 seconds left. 

Connor Killion put the Eagles up 6-4 after Brian Casey won a faceoff and fed him on the right side with 42 seconds left. The Eagles won the final faceoff of the period, but Killion's shot went wide. Eastern hada  14-13 edge in shots and won 7-of-11 faceoffs. 

The Bears scored the first three goals of the second period, but the Eagles took advantage of two man-up chances to retake the lead. With his first touch of the season, Matt Auletti tagged the upper corner on the offstick side for a 7-7 tie. Piper provided the service. Jake Gottschalk scored after a strong step-in move just as time expired on another man-up chance. Gottschalk would score his second of the season less than 100 seconds later on another Piper feed. 

Up 9-7, the Eagles had the ball twice. After Ethan Joseph chinned the ground ball on another Firmani win at X, Piper threw an errant pass that went out of bounds. Kyran Backer jammed a ball free, and Chris Durning started the clear, but an Eastern shot with 30 seconds left led to a transition chance, and the Bears pulled to within a goal on the sixth goal of the year from Bobby McClure. 

Durning had ten ground balls at halftime. 

The third quarter looked like a different game. After a 17 goal first half, both teams slowed the game after the intermission. The Bears tied the game midway through the half and grabbed a one-goal lead with five minutes to play. Nicholas Fanelli tied the game at the of a long possession that came on the heels of a successful ride. Kyle Fanelli forced the turnover. Nicholas ended the possession with a behind-the-head shot from a tight angle late in the possession clock. 

The Bears had the final possession of the third, and the Eastern defenders got the ball on the ground with only seconds to play in the period. With attackmen and defenders all tying each other up, Ursinus midfielder Tommy Reinhart slipped through the melee and grabbed a ground ball on the doorstop. He threw a quick fake and dunked home the shot for an 11-10 lead with only four seconds left in the half. 

The Eagles had several chances to tie, and it looked like they might have on a dive from Killion with a little more than ten minutes left. His shot went in, but he was ruled to have made contact with the new arc and the goal was disallowed. 

McClure gave the Bears a two-goal edge with four and a half minutes left. 

The Eagles  won 14-of-26 faceoffs and had a 39-35 edge in ground balls. 

Coach Wallace Says:
"This was a tough one. We did a lot of things right to today. We leveled ourselves after they jumped on us early, and we showed that we can get possessions. We made good defensive adjustments at halftime and I thought we did a good job on their top guys. In games against good teams, you have to make possessions count. They were able to force us into spots where we turned it over. There is a lot of positives that we can take from today, but we know we cannot turn the ball over 26 times and beat a good team."

Up Next:
The Eagles start a stretch of five road games with three on Spring Break. They will play Virginia Wesleyan and Christopher Newport in Virginia Beach on Sunday and Wednesday and will stop in St. Mary's City in Maryland to take on St. Mary's next Saturday.