READING, Pa.— Eastern University Men's Soccer came into tonight's contest at Albright knowing that they would have they would have the chance to extend their season as long as they won and York did not beat Messiah. The Eagles scored all five of their goals in the second half to win 5-0 at Albright, and York fell by a 1-0 decision at Messiah.
Evan Cope scored twice in the win.
With the win, the Eagles (6-9-2 , 2-3-1) move to within a point of York in the standings and simply need to earn a better result against Widener than York does against Stevenson to earn the fourth spot in the MAC Commonwealth Tournament. The Eagles will be playing a Widener team that is playing in the exact same space. Though Widener is a point behind Eastern, should the Pride win the game and York loses or ties, Widener would gain the fourth seed.
Though the Eagles had an 8-5 edge in first half shots, neither team found the back of the net in the first 45 minutes.
The game remained scoreless until
Mauro Lence headed home a Cope cross in the 54th minute. Lence timed his run perfectly and cushioned a header off the back post for his first career goal.
The host Lions (5-8-4, 0-5-1) had a pair of chances to equalize, but the Eastern back row did its work in front of
Ty Bleiler and turned away a shot from in close and a dangerous restart.
In the 63rd minute, Cope earned the edge on the right side and was headed to goal. When a defender clipped his heels, the referee pointed to the spot. Cope converted from the spot for the second time this year. The graduate student complete his brace and put the result out of reach when he powered home a rebound of a Matt Capuano shot in the 75th minute. The finish was an absolute goal-scorers goal. Cope held himself onside, beat his mark to the loose ball, and powered the shot through the goalkeeper fingertips.
With the two goals today, Cope now has 36 for his career. That puts him fifth on the list of scorers since Eastern joined the NCAA in 1992, and it is the most scored in a career by any player since 2002. He moved into fifth on Eastern's modern list for career points as well.
Joseph Montgomery forced a turnover deep in Albright territory and converted for his first career goal to make it 4-0 in the 83rd minute, Carter Hamburger continued the run of first-career goals when he headed home a
Camden Jones cross in the 89th minute for the final goal of the match.
Bleiler made two stops to secure the win. Eastern had not beaten Albright since 2022.
The Eagles will host Widener at 1:00 pm on Saturday. The Pride would finish behind Eastern with a tie, but neither one of the two teams in St. Davids will want to risk playing for a draw. York and Stevenson are slated to start at 3:00 PM.
