CHESTER, Pa.– In a a game that was, for all intents and purposes, a play-in game for the MAC Commonwealth Tournament, Eastern University Men's Lacrosse (7-9, 3-3) put together an all-around performance to a earn a dominating 16-4 win at Widener. Ethan Myers made 14 stops in goal and allowed only three, and the Eagles got multi-point performances from all six offensive starters. In scoring the first two goals of the game, Nicholas Fanelli became the leading goal scorer in program history.

To open the scoring, Fanelli dunked home a shot on the back post on a pass from Gavin Stark. The Eastern lead stood at 1-0 until Fanelli scored off a dodge from behind the crease with eight minutes left in the first quarter. The goal, his 189th, put him in front of Grant Ferguson as the program's career goals leader. With 325 career points in his 71 games, Fanelli is among the active leaders in NCAA Lacrosse in all divisions. Today was his birthday.

NIck Litzenberger scored his first of three on the day with an overpowering step-down with seven minutes left. The goal was his first of three on the day. The Pride picked up the final goal of the first quarter and seemed to be back in the mix on a nice finish with two and a half minutes left. Myers refused to let the Pride get closer. The senior goalie made five of his stops in the first quarter and was very active in the clearing game.  

Eastern broke the game open with five-straight tallies to start the second quarter. With the Pride keying on Nicholas Fanelli, Litzenberger, Gavin Stark, and Brett Williamson each scored once in the run and Christopher Fanelli scored twice. Avery Porter had a pair of assists in the run. The Pride grabbed a goal back with 94 seconds to play in the half to close the gap to 8-2. The Eagles had a final possession and ran a play for a final shot, but Williamson's shot bounced just over the crossbar with three seconds left. 

Though the Pride won 9-of-11 second-half faceoffs, the Eagles got multiple saves and caused turnovers to dominate possession in the second half. The Eagles got three goals in the third quarter and five more in the fourth. Litzenberer, Christopher Fanelli, and Avery Porter each scored in the third. Stark and Connor Bachman each scored twice in the fourth quarter and Maxwell Forey scored once. Nicholas Fanelli had assists on three-straight goals. One of those came on a one-handed pass with his left hand while his other arm was being held. 

"Ethan was really sharp tonight," Head Coach Colin Piper said after the game. "From the moment the Messiah game ended, we had a pretty good idea how important this game would be. Our entire defense was locked in, and were were able to create enough chances to win. Nicholas did a nice job coming into the midfield to help against some of the things they were doing in their ride."

With the win, the Eagles improve to 3-3 in MAC Commonwealth play. Eastern can secure the fourth seed in the MAC Comonwealth tournament with a win at Hood on Saturday. Widener finishes its season at Stevenson on Saturday. 

Eastern's game at Hood is slated for a noon start.