ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– Eastern University Men's Lacrosse rallied from a five-goal deficit to pull to within a goal late int he third quarter, but the visiting Messiah University Falcons finished the third quarter with a pair of stops and outscored the Eagles 4-2 in the fourth quarter for a 15-12 win. Nick Litzenberger scored a season-high five goals to pace the Eastern offense. 

The Eagles (4-8, 0-2) scored on the opening faceoff when Nicholas Fanellie finished on the doorstep from Dominic Marangoni, but the Falcons answered with three goals to end the first quarter. Thought the period ended 3-1, the two teams combined to hit five pipes in the frame. 

Litzenberger scored his first goal of the day early in the second period, but the Falcons had an answer. Ryan Drobnick and Litzenberger scored to tie the game at four midway through the second period. The Falcons got two Mike McKnelly tallies to go up 6-4. McKnelly finished with a game-high seven goals. 

With two an a half minutes left, in the half, the Eagles went down a man for a minute but earned possession when Ethan Myers won a race on a wide shot. After running out the penalty, the Eagles cut in to the lead on a strong finish from Connor Bachman on an Avery Porter feed. Bachman, who finished with two goals, had hit four posts in the first 28 minutes of the game. Charlie Harrison won a faceoff and the Eagles got a timeout to set up an opportunity to tie the game going into the half. The Eagles got a goal on a nice finish from Litzenberger on another Porter feed, but the goal with 26 seconds left gave the whoever won the next faceoff enough time to take a halftime lead. After an extended scramble, the Falcons won the ground ball and were able to get a timeout. The visitors converted their chance on a dive from behind the goal with less than two seconds left.

Messiah scored the opening four goals of the second half and seemed to have control. The final two goals in that stretch came in five-on-five play with both teams serving a penalty. When the Eastern penalty released, the Eagles took advantage of the extra-man chance on a Nicholas Fanelli goal from Litzenberger. Two minutes later, the Eagles had another extra-man chance and Porter set up Litzenberger for another extra-man goal.

After a Messiah stop, Jack Bradley gave the Eagles the ball back with a caused turnover and Marangoni through a pair of slashes all the way to the goal. After a strong face-dodge eight yards out, Marnagoni popped in his third goal of the season to pull the Eagles to within two at 11-9. Both slashes resulted in penalties and the Eagles converted with two extra players on a good finish on the crease by Christopher Fanelli. Nicholas Fanelli made the feed. 

The Eagles had an extra-man opportunity early in the fourth and failed to capitalize. They had four shots to tie the game, but Litzenberger missed just high, the Messiah defense blocked a pair, and Falcon goalie Jourdain Algarin turned another away. 

Messiah scored three-straight to restore a four-goal edge. Again the Eagles had an answer with goals from Bachman and Litzenberger to close the gap back to two goals with six and a half minutes to play. 

Messiah (9-3, 2-0) won the ensuing faceoff and the Eagles went man-down and were never able to get a shot before Messiah's Bobby Berg scored with slightly less than three minutes to play. 

The Falcons finished with a 51-48 edge in shots. Charlie Harrison won 16-of-28 faceoffs and finished with eight ground balls. Ethan Myers made 11 stops in goal.