With their 14-5 victory over the Manhattan Jaspers on Saturday, April 25 the men’s lacrosse team clinched the four seed in the upcoming MAAC Tournament in just their second season at the varsity level.
“I am proud of my staff and guys for the effort today in getting a win and securing our first conference tournament berth,” said Head Coach Brian Fisher. “I couldn’t be more excited for our guys, and happy for our senior that we had the opportunity to extend our season and get another game.”
Sophomore Chris Daly scored two goals and also recorded three assists for a team high five-points on the contest. Daly is currently second on the Hawks in goals scored (11) assists (8), and total points (19) this season. Senior Ryan Schwartz led MU with three goals for the game on five shot attempts.
Freshman Bryce Wasserman had one assist in the win, and that pushed his team leading point total to 31 on the season. Wasserman leads the Hawks in both goals and assists this year with 21 and ten respectively.
Things were quiet early as neither team was able to score through the first nine minutes of play. Daly finally broke the scoreless tie with just under six minutes to play in the first quarter when he took a pass from Wasserman and beat the Manhattan keeper to give MU a 1-0 lead.
The lead was short live, however, when just two minutes later Manhattan’s Nick Strano found the back of the net tobring the game back even.
With the game tied at one at the three and a half minute mark of the first quarter the Hawks rattled off eight consecutive goals over the next sixteen minutes of play to take a commanding 9-1 lead with two minutes remaining in the second period.
A Manhattan score cut the deficit to seven in the final seconds before halftime, but the Jaspers never mounted a serious comeback threat for the rest of the contest.
The Hawks led by as much as 11 when a Schwarz goal put them ahead 13-2 with six minutes left to play in the third, but the Jaspers managed to outscore the Hawks 3-1 in the final period to make the final score 14-5 and keep MU from claiming a double-digit victory.
The 14 goals scored was a season high for MU, and the nine point victory was the highest margin they’ve had this season. MU’s largest victory coming into the game was a four point win over Wagner in the third game of the season way back on Tuesday, March 3.
Garret Conaway was solid in net for the Hawks. In just under 40 minutes of play the senior allowed only two goals while saving seven Manhattan attempts.
With the regular season coming to a close the Hawks now turn their attention to their first-round matchup against top-seeded Marist. In their only meeting this season Marist came away with a resounding 10-3 win over MU.
However, since that time the Hawks have won four of seven, with three of the four losses being one score contests. First faceoff is scheduled for 7 pm this Thursday, April 30.
