ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Eastern University Men's Lacrosse ground out a tough 9-7 win over the visiting Arcadia University Knights to claim a third-straight win. Ethan Myers made 11 saves, and the Eastern man-down unit allowed just a single goal in eight chances. Nathan Gilbert had five caused turnovers.

The Eagles (3-2) won four first-quarter faceoffs and made the possession count on the way to a 4-2 lead. The Knights scored on their opening possession and did not tally again until the final 70 second of the frame. Avery Porter tied the game with step-down shot from long range and the Eagles grabbed the lead for good after Patrick McClain won a faceoff on violation and elected to go quickly on the restart. He powered through an initial defender and fed Gavin Stark on the doorstop. Stark converted from the edge of the crease. Fifty-seven seconds later, Stark fed Christopher Fanelli for his first of two on the day.

It looked like the offense might have a crazy day when Porter dodged down the left alley and put the Eagles up 4-1 with nearly eight minutes left in the quarter. The offensive onslaught, however, never happened. Over the next 19 minutes, the Eagles could not find the cage. They hit pipes with three of their nine shots over the stretch and the were man-down twice.

Despite the offensive power-outage, the defense stood strong and Myers made five stops and the Eagles finally added on When Nick Litzenberger scored from distance with 2:44 left in the half.

The Eagles started the second half man-down but got a big save from Myers to survive the EMO. The Eastern lead grew to three on a finish from Nicholas Fanelli off a pass from his brother four minutes into the half. The Knights grabbed a goal back with two minutes to play and had the ball with the possession clock turned off late with a chance to close the gap to one.

Gilbert then made a game-changing play with a well-timed check to knock a ball free right at the top of the defensive box. With less than ten seconds to play, the ball floated toward midfield. Jason Poole grabbed the loose ball and drew a defender in transition. His pass to Christopher Fanelli put the sophomore sniper in alone on the goalie. Fanelli threw a couple fakes and dunked home his second of the afternoon with only three seconds on the game clock for a 7-4 lead.

The Eagles finally converted an extra-man chance when Litzenberger fed Nicholas Fanelli with fifteen seconds left on a short penalty midway through the fourth. Arcadia closed the gap to 8-5 with 2:22 on the clock before Litzenberger restored the four-goal edge with 70 seconds to play.

The Knights grabbed the next face-off and scored with 37 seconds left and a flag flying. With no faceoff, Arcadia converted the extra-man chance to pull within two with 23 seconds left. The Eastern defense blocked a shot and Dominic Marangoni gathered a critical ground ball to secure the final margin.

Eastern will return to Olson Field where they will face the MAC Freedom favorite Stevens Institute of Technology in a non-league match. The Ducks (5-1) were receiving votes in the last USILA poll and beat No. 12 Wesleyan 15-7 this afternoon.