Dirt in my eye!

I sent the kids out this morning at 8:45 to play, after everyone had breakfast and dressed for summer. By 9 am, Daniel was throwing sand on Gretchen and Austin - and right into Austin's face, thus getting his right eye full of sand. After dusting him off outside as best as I could, I brought him in the house and flushed his eye out with lukewarm water under the sink faucet. Needless to say, he didn't not like this method in the least bit. But I could think of no other way to get the pound of sand out of his eye before he rubbed scratches into it. What would you have done? Is there a better method for this? I need to know, because I can bet you money this won't be the last time the kids throw sand in each other's faces.