Senior attackman Matt Durand dished four assists to lead top-seeded Eastview to a 12-6 victory over second-seeded Eagan in the Minnesota State High School League Section 3 championship game Thursday night.

Senior attackman Andy Freeman, junior middie Rex Sanders and senior middie Blake Kleven all added three goals to help the Lightning (12-4) win its third straight Section 3 title. Eastview is the only team to ever win the Section 3 championship since Minnesota sanctioned lacrosse in 2007.

With the victory, Eastview advanced to the state semifinals and will face a yet-to-be determined opponent on Wednesday, June 3, at Hopkins High School. Eastview has lost in the state semifinals the last two seasons.

“We’re really tired of losing that semifinal game,” Eastview head coach Tim Roche said. “We’ve just got to go in there, do what we do and make sure we play whistle to whistle.”

On Thursday, junior attackman Luke Wagner added three points on a goal and two assists, and junior attackman D.J. Schliesman scored twice for Eastview.

Eagan finished the season 12-4.

In a game that was closer than the final score indicates, Eagan led 3-2 at the end of the first quarter, Eastview led 4-3 at halftime and the Lightning led 6-5 at the end of the third quarter.

But Eastview reeled off six straight goals in the fourth quarter and took a 12-5 lead when Schliesman scored his second goal with 5:46 remaining.

“Eagan just had a very good strategy,” Roche said. “They wanted to slow it down, and we weren’t able to get into a flow until the fourth quarter. Once we were able to get rolling, everything fell into place.”