Game 14: Eagles v. PSU Abington

ST. DAVIDS, Pa.- After dropping its last two matches, Eastern University Men's Soccer scored a pair of early goals and held on for a 2-1 home win over Penn State-Abington (10-3). The Eagles (8-5-1) will conclude their 2012 campaign this Saturday with a Freedom Conference home game against Delaware Valley College.


Eastern jumped to a great start when Brandon Beaumont found Ben Barnhart in space behind the Nittany Lion back row. Barnhart took a touch central and beat the charging goalkeeper with a dribble before rolling in his first career goal with only 108 seconds elapsed in the match.

Four minutes later, Barnhart returned the favor with a clever ball into space for Beaumont. Beuamont's solid touch gave the Eagles a 2-0 lead and the game seemed to be working its way toward a blow-out. That, however, never happened. Beaumont put a shot from in close over the bar in the 23rd minute, and shortly thereafter the visiting Lions cut the deficit in half on a deftly played shot from Matt Howard.

The game moved into a back-and-forth affair from there. 

Eastern's Nick Policastro made the best ofhis three saves shortly after the intermission to stop a Matt Howard chance from in close. Abington's James Carlin kept his team within a goal with consecutive saves on in close shots from Zach Johnson in the 66th minute.

The win lifts the Eagles to 7-1-1 on Olson Field this year. Eastern will look to add to that mark with its final home test of the year against Delaware Valley College this Saturday.