Men's Lacrosse News & Highlights
July 25, 2012
#2: Eagles Win Two League Titles
The Eastern Faithful storm the field after Chris Farrar's overtime goal lifted the Eagles to a 12-11 win over Widener in the MAC Championship Game.
The unprecedented double-title was set up when the MAC Lacrosse coaches agreed to split into two leagues. With only one automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament available, there still needed to be a MAC Champion. Eastern cruised through the Freedom Conference and earned a bye into the Freedom Championship game. Widener, on the other hand, was the second seed in the Commonwealth, and had to battle past Lycoming and Albright for a spot in the MAC Championship game.
Though the contest was at Eastern, the Pride was right at home in the Championship game. Widener owns 13 MAC Lacrosse Championships. The Eagles trailed by four goals with four minutes to play in the third period, but five goals in under four minutes of clock time around the intermission put the Eagles up 10-9.
Widener scored two in a row to grab the lead before Will Johnson tied the game with 60 seconds to play. Farrar's goal in overtime gave the Eagles and first-year Head Coach Kevin Wallace the MAC crown.
To read the original account of the game, click here .
There will be no more double-winners in Men's Lacrosse. Next year, the Commonwealth Champion will earn the automatic bid, and teams in the Freedom Conference will be eligible to receive either Pool B or a Pool C bid to the NCAA Tournament. The three Pool B bids are reserved for independent schools, teams in conferences that do not have enough teams for an AQ, or conferences that are new and in transition. Though the Freedom Conference has long been established in other sports, it will be, with the addition of Arcadia for lacrosse, a new group of schools, and will need two years before receiving a Pool A bid. Pool C (or at-large) bids are given to top teams nationwide that do not receive Pool A or Pool B invitations.
Eastern University Athletics
enjoyed perhaps its most successful year to date in the '11-'12 academic
year. In anticipation of another tremendous year of athletic
accomplishment, goeasterneagles.com will recap top stories through the
month of July. The top ten stories of 2011-12 were selected from
fan-balloting done during the month of June.
Updated: Wednesday, 25 July 2012
