Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 2/6/26
From Press Release
After their season-opener against Salisbury was moved back two days, the Eastern coaching staff took a small risk agreeing to move their road-opener at DeSales up two days in another attempt to avoid sub-zero temperatures.
The move paid off Thursday afternoon as the Eagles (1-1) rode a hot start to an 8-2 halftime lead and claimed a 16-8 win against their former MAC Freedom Rivals at Center Valley.
Freshman John Tinney (Ridley) collected six goals, an assist, four groundballs and a caused turnover to lead the Eagles. Tinney has eight goals already in this frozen start of the season. Frankie Fanelli (Pennridge) added two goals and three assists and Brett Williamson scored three times. Brett Gougler (Springfield-Delco) had three assists, six groundballs and four caused turnovers while Benjamin Souder (Pennridge) won 13 of 22 faceoffs and Brendan Kirn (Hatboro-Horsham) made 12 stops in goal for the win.
For DeSales Jake Hurd (Parkland) had two goals and three assists while Jason Reilly scored three.
After the Bulldogs won the opening faceoff, the Eagles earned a defensive stop and took an early lead on Williamson’s first of three goals on the day. Gavin Stark picked up an assist on the goal.
The Eastern offense was not super smooth early, but their ride was in form. Stark doubled the lead after a Gougler interception near midfield. Frankie Fanelli, who finished with two goals and three assists, set up the goal.
The story of the day, however, was the production from Tinney. The rookie scored the next two goals to put the Eagles up 4-0 with 4:23 left on the clock. Tinney recorded his first-career hat trick in the first half. He enjoyed it, so he did it again in the second half as well. He scored in each of the four quarters and added an assist and four ground balls in his second career outing.
After the Bulldogs scored in the final ninety seconds of the first quarter, Williamson answered with his second of the day on a pass from Gougler with only six seconds left for a 5-1 lead after 15 minutes. The Eastern ride only allowed two DeSales clearances on seven attempts in the first quarter.
The Bulldogs (0-1) opened the scoring in the second period with a goal five minutes in. Stark fed Tinney for a 6-2 lead and a five minutes later beat the possession clock with a low-to-low effort from just above goal-line extended for a 7-2 lead.
Fanelli finished the first-half scoring with a man-up goal from the crease off a long feed from Brennan Kaut (Penncrest, 1A, 2CT, 1GB). The Eagles won seven of the eleven first half face-offs and had a 21-12 edge in first-half ground balls.
“We knew we would have to weather their initial energy out of halftime,” Head Coach Colin Piper said. “They are a good team that nearly came back from a similar deficit against Arcadia last year. Our first eight minutes of the second half was important.”
After Souder won the opening faceoff of the second half, the Eagles had the ball for nearly five minutes with a shot off the post and quick ride after another long possession.
The Bulldogs closed the gap to 8-3, but Nicholas Ciampaglio scored Eastern’s first pole goal of the season of the year to answer. The shot from the crease is Ciampaglio’s third career goal.
After the Bulldogs closed the gap to 9-5, Tinney delivered a stunning dive play with half a second left in the third and a flag down for a five-goal edge. Brendan Kirn made five of his 12 saves in the third quarter.
With Tinney scoring on either side of a Williamson tally, the Eagles stretched their lead to 13-6 with eight minutes left. After a DeSales goal, Tinney set up a Maxwell Forrey for a goal on the crease. Nicholas Howes and Fanelli scored the final two Eastern goals for a 16-7 lead with four minutes left. Howes now has three goals for his career.
