ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Eastern University Men's Lacrosse scored five times in the opening four mintues of the game, but the visiting Stockton University Ospreys (14-2) gained control of the faceoff x to more than match the Eastern run with a nine-goal burst. Stockton held off several late rallies to earn a 22-19 win in the highest scoring men's lacrosse game in the history of Olson Field. Nicholas Fanelli finished with four goals and five assists and Christopher Fanelli had six goals and a helper.

The Eagles (7-9) trailed 21-16 with six minutes left, but three goals in a 90-second burst closed the gap to 21-19 with over four minutes to play. Nicholas Fanelli scored the first on a great pass from Connor Bachman and then set up his brother just over a minute later. Avery Porter powered home a high shot on an assist from Bachman for the third goal. 

The Eagles had two possessions to cut the gap to one. The first came after Nicholas Fanelli checked a ball free on a ride. Connor Bachman shot low, but Stockton goalie Eric Lindskog had the answer. Ethan Myers made a huge save on an in close shot, but Stockton's Dante Poli picked off his outlet pass and dunked in his fifth goal of the day to rebuild the three-goal edge. With less than two minutes to play, the Eagles were unable to convert another caused turnover into a goal and the clock ran out. 

After trailing 15-10, the Eagles tied the game with a five-goal burst that was ignited by back-to-back faceoff guy goals from Patrick McClain and Anthony Firmani and capped by a powerful from the right alley by Jake Gottschalk. Christopher Fanelli scored the other two goals in the run on assists from Connor Killion. The Ospreys, however, answered back with five goals. In the game, Eastern produced two five-goal runs and Stockton had a five-goal run and a nine-goal burst.

"It was two good offenses going to work today," Head Coach Kevin Wallace said after the game. "The team that had more of the ball was going to win."

While Eastern got possessions out of 19 saves from Myers and 15 caused turnovers, they were unable to make up for the 31-14 edge at the faceoff x. Stockton also had a decided advantage in ground balls. Many of those extra possessions helped to build runs.

"We had stretches where our defenders did a great job of putting balls on the ground," Wallace continued, "but it seemed they came out of the scrums with more ground balls. I think they scored directly off three or four of them. That's where we need to continue to get tougher."

Both active Fanelli brothers have 43 goals and move into a four-way tie for fifth on the single season goals list. Grant Ferguson owns the top three spots and Tim Lamb scored 48 goals in 2016. With his nine-point today, Nicholas moves into the fourth spot on the single-season list. He is two points behind Ferguson's total from 2014 and 12 behind David Darling's 91 from that same season.

The game today was the final non-league test for both teams. Eastern had rolled to three lopsided wins since dropping a 14-13 heartbreaker to Stevenson. Today's game, for the Eagles, will be a good tune-up leading into a regular-season finale against Messiah that now has great significance and for next week's conference tournament. The only MAC Commonwealth Tournament seed that is set is the top spot for York. The Spartans beat Stevenson on Wednesday to finish their regular season. Widener and Stevenson and Eastern and Messiah are playing each other this weekend and are the other four tournament teams. Final seeds will not be known until after Stevenson and Widener finish on Saturday. The fourth seed will host the fifth seed on Tuesday, May 3.

Stockton has been receiving votes in the USILA top-20 poll. They are the top seed in the CSAC. They are slated to play Rosemont in the opneing round of that tournament and will likely face the winner of Kean and Montclair State.