“Eagle” Road for a Reason: EU Men’s Soccer beats Cabrini to claim the Eagle Road Derby.

Eagle Road “kept its name” after Eastern University Men’s Soccer beat Cabrini for the eighth contest in a row. Even though the Eagles had to cross the street for this contest, the lack of home field advantage didn’t stop the boys from rallying past the Cavaliers.

With an electric crowd behind them at Edith Robb Dixon field, the Eagles overcame two one-goal deficits in their rivalry win. One of these goals came in the early minutes of the game, where an Eastern player attempted to deflect the ball away from the goal. The ball took an unfortunate bounce into Eastern’s net, resulting in an own goal.

The battle was even for a good remainder of the half, but in the forty-third minute, a scoring chance for Eastern arose. Drew Johnson sent a crossing shot past the center of the goal and into the right edge of the box. Gabe Velazquez collected that ball and delivered a strong shot into the left side of the goal. The first half of the Eagle Road Derby ended 1-1.

A little over 10 minutes into the second half, Cabrini erased the tie on the scoreboard and fired a shot past Eastern keeper Diesel Fiore.

But the 2-1 Cabrini lead didn’t last long. Nine minutes later, Ryan Jammes netted his first career goal with a rocket of a shot into the top right corner of the goal.

Later in the half, Emmanuel Hewitt started a play that gave the Eagles their first lead of the game. Hewitt made a strong defensive play to knock the ball loose from a Cabrini defender. Derek Buhrman controlled the ball and passed to Jake Morales, who nailed a shot into the lower left corner.

The Eagles fought hard for the remainder of the half, preserving the lead that won them the game. With Eastern faithful parents, students and friends behind them, the boys overcame a pair of deficits to display their resiliency.

The Battle of Eagle Road dates back to 1982. Since the debut game, there have been 37 contests between the cross-street rivals. Eastern has won 20 of these games, while Cabrini has won 18. The matchups have always been tight, but the Eastern boys seem to be redeeming themselves. Eastern has won the last eight matchups with Cabrini, both at home on Olson Field and across the road on Cabrini’s home turf.

With an immense amount of young talent and potential and several key players remaining, the Eagles will continue to value these energetic wins as their program moves forward.