Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 4/8/21
From Press Release
Eastern turned in a stellar defensive performance to critical 12-7 MAC Commonwealth win Wednesday over a Widener University Pride team that entered with just one loss.
Chris Durning (Ridley) finished with 13 ground balls, six caused turnovers, and a goal to lead a dominant effort in front of first-year goalie Ethan Myers who finished with 14 saves.
The Pride (6-2, 2-2 MAC Commonwealth) came into the game averaging nearly 19 goals per game. Though the Pride grabbed a 1-0 lead five minutes into the game, the pace of the game was exactly what the Eastern coaching staff wanted.
“We did not want to get into a run-and-gun game with them,” Eastern Head Coach Kevin Wallace (Avon Grove) said. “We felt that 6-on-6, our poles could go to work and that we would be able to find enough offense to earn the win. Its still early, but this is an important game in the league as we fight for seeding in the tournament.”
Kyle Fanelli (Pennridge) scored his first goal of the day off a nice skip from Kyle Mulrane to tie the game at 1-1 heading to the second quarter. Fanelli made it 2-1 on a highlight-reel goal three minutes into the second.
A Widener player was offside on the play, so there were seven defenders in front of the goalie and a flag down when the ball went to Nicholas Fanelli (Pennridge) at X. The younger Fanelli saw his brother cutting toward the crease and fed his right hand, but a Widener defender was there to take away a right-handed shot. Undeterred, Kyle went behind his head and under the bar to put the Eagles up.
After a long Eastern possession, the Pride equalized on another highlight goal. Junior goalie Carter Landry stole a feed in front of the crease nad ran upfield on the clear. As Eastern defenders took away options, Landry kept moving toward goal. his bounce-shot beat Myers to tie the game.
David Thomas scored on a pass from Connor Killion and Nicholas Fanelli added his only goal of the game to close out the half and send the teams to the locker rooms with Eastern leading 4-2. With the help of his wings, Anthony Firmani won 7-of-8 faceoffs in the first half. Both Myers and Landry made seven stops and Eastern had a 21-15 edge in shots.
Despite a solo effort to goal by Ryker LaFranchi in the early going in the third, Widener was able to tie the game at 5-5 with 25 minutes to play in the game.
The Eagles got a goal from Kyle Fanelli at the end of a long possession to grab the lead for good. Avery Porter had the assist on the play. The Eagles took advantage of their first extra-man opportunity to double the lead. Mulrane went low-to-high on a good feed from Nicholas Fanelli. Eastern was 2-for-2 on EMO’s on the day.
Widener scored the first goal of the fourth quarter, but the Eagles got two goals from long-poles to build a short-lived three-goal edge. Josh Green scored his first of the year on a feed from Nate Hawkins in transition after a save from Myers. Then Kyran Baker (Ridley) knifed a ball loose for Durning who looked like he wanted to go coast-to-coast and rip a hard shot, but instead flipped a ball to an attackman on the wing. Instead of sprinting of the field, Durning slipped undetected into the area in front of the crease. Porter saw his LSM in space and fed him for a dunk under the bar.
The Pride won the next faceoff and scored five seconds to reestablish contact before Durning picked up another ground ball on a faceoff and the Eagles went man-up for the second time. The Fanelli-Fanelli combination again unlocked the Widener defense as Kyle put away his fourth of the day for a 10-7 lead with seven minutes left.
“Our defense was outstanding today,” Wallace said. “Ethan was strong in goal, and Kyran, Ian Kalb, and Cole Millard were just tough. Chris had a tremendous day, and our defensive midfielders were solid. I think we are realizing who we are and how we need to play. This was the second really good defensive performance in a row. Our offense was able to give us long possessions and take advantage of transition opportunities when they were there. We will have a test on Saturday at Stevenson.”
With his six caused turnovers on the day, Durning moves into a tie with Jordan Norris for the program record in that category with 109. Millard has 99 for his career. Durning has 385 career ground balls. The program record is held by Brian Miller ’03 with 395.
Carter Landry made 11 saves in the match, moving him to 10th all-time in saves for Widener with 280. He also netted his first career goal.
Connor Heisman (Bishop Shanahan) led the Pride in scoring with four points off two goals and two assists.Paz Gismondi (West Deptford-NJ) picked up two scores.
Defensively, Aegean Cuylan (Unionville) and Drew Venit (Gloucester Catholic) each caused three turnovers a piece.