CENTER VALLEY, Pa. - Eastern Men's Soccer withstood an early strike from the host Bulldogs and scored the final three goals in a 3-1 win at DeSales on Saturday afternoon. Senior
Marcus Pringle notched tying tally in the eighth minute is his second career start, and fellow seniors
Osmond Chan and
Zach Sievert scored a pair of second half goals to give the Eagles their third win of the season.
The Bulldogs started out strong, scoring the match's opening goal in the fourth minute. Mike McCurry tallied his fourth goal of the year on a strong pass from JohnPaul Mazza at the top of the box to give DeSales an early 1-0 lead. Eastern, however, found its footing.
After gathering the ball in the defensive midfield, senior João Tarabal played a terrific pass over the top to a streaking Pringle. The forward went on to beat a DeSales defender, putting the ball on his left foot and firing a shot into the bottom right corner of the net to tie the match at 1-1.
Pringle's goal swung the momentum in favor of the Eagles, who played excellent football on both sides of the pitch the rest of the way. Despite being outshot 22-8 for the match, Head Coach
Luca Mellor was thrilled with how his defense played over the course of the afternoon.
"After their first goal, we defended so well for the rest of the game," Mellor said. "We played some really good football, especially towards the end of the second half."
Four minutes into the second 45 minutes, Chan scored his first goal of the season and the sixth of his career to give the Eagles a lead they would not relinquish. Sophomore Iñigo Gullón Santana played a strong ball over the top to Sievert, who gathered the ball and sprinted down the right side. A few moments later, Sievert laid a perfect cross to Chan, who put the ball in the bottom left corner of the net to put the Eagles up 2-1.
Sievert put the finishing touches on the win in the 83rd minute, beating two defenders before rocketing a shot into the top right corner of the net for his fifth goal of the season. Sievert and Pfau led the Eagles with three shots each, while junior goalkeeper
Michael Arcuri made five saves for this third win of the year.
Eastern (3-1-2) returns to Olson Field on Wednesday for a 3:30 match against Goucher College.
