ST. DAVIDS, Pa.– For the first half, Eastern University Men's Lacrosse played right with the No. 11 Stevens Institute of Technology Ducks, but the visitors outscored the Eagles 4-1 in the third quarter and earned a 16-9 win. With his goal in the first quarter, Christopher Fanelli became just the fourth Eastern player in program history to record 200 career points. He finished the day with three goals.

With an early strike from Christopher Fanelli and an unassisted tally from Brett Gougler, the Eagles went up 2-0 in the first five minutes. After Stevens leveled the score at 2-2, Brett William swept home a shot from just above goal-line extended for a 3-2 lead. Forty-five seconds later, the Ducks leveled the score at 3-3. The game stayed at 3-3 until midway through the second quarter.

The Ducks took advantage of two man-up chances to go up 5-3, and added two more at even-strength to build a 7-3 lead with four goals in a three-minute stretch.

Christopher Fanelli scored his second of the day, again on an assist from his brother, to spark a three-goal response. Gavin Stark set up Nick Litzenberger for a man-up goal with 92 seconds left. Brett Williamson capped the run with a great scoop and score after a good save of a Christopher Fanelli shot.

Williamson's second of the game came with 44 seconds on the clock, which proved to be too early. Matthew Pergola scored with 17 seconds left to give the visitors an 8-6 lead heading to break Pergola finished with a game-high five goals to lead Stevens.


Out of the half, the Stevens' ride took the Eagles out of their game, but the Eastern defense stood its ground early and Litzenberger scored an even-strength goal to pull the Eagles to within a goal with 11 minutes to play in the quarter.

Though the Eagles hit three posts in the final 11 minutes of the quarter, all the goals went to the guests. Stevens held a 12-7 lead after three quarters.

After a two-minute locked-in penalty on Stevns, Litzenberger opened the scoring in the fourth with a man-up goal against a six-man Stevens unit with a flag down for offsides. The Eagles, however, could not win the extra-man faceoff, and the Ducks were able to limit the damage of the major penalty.

With the Eagles pressing out, the Ducks scored the next four goals before Fanelli put away an extra-man tally from Litzenberger. The extra-man tally was the 10th of the year for Fanelli. He came into the game one behind the national leader in that category. Litzenberger has eight extra-man goals and is also in the top ten in that category. 

The Ducks doubled-up the Eagles 18-9 on faceoffs and had a 53-40 edge in shots. Zach Klym had 18 saves in goal.

The Eagles open their league season next Saturday at Stevenson.