Men’s lacrosse closed out non-conference play by splitting decisions in home games against Lafayette and New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT).
The Hawks picked up their first home win of the season on Saturday afternoon, beating the now winless NJIT Highlanders by a score of 10-4.
The Hawks came out rolling in this contest, outscoring the Highlanders 4-1 in the opening quarter. Senior attack Bryce Wasserman once again started the offensive attack, burying an early goal at the 14:05 mark. After NJIT quickly responded to even the game at one, junior attack Hunter Jones scored his sixteenth goal of the season to reclaim the lead for the blue and white. Monmouth tacked on two more goals in the quarter from Wasserman and junior attack Griffin Figel to close it out.
In the second quarter, junior midfielder Jake Willson scored his second goal of the year to extend the Hawks’ advantage over the Highlanders by four. NJIT responded by scoring two goals in under a two-minute stretch of play to make the score 5-3 going into the half.
Like the start of the game, the blue and white came out storming and scored four third quarter goals. In the frame, Figel buried three goals in a row to not only complete his hat trick, but up his total on the afternoon to four and his season total to fourteen. It was his first career hat trick as well as his first career four-goal game. Wasserman joined in on the fun with Figel and completed a hat trick of his own, making the score 9-3 Hawks.
In the final quarter, the teams exchanged goals and the game was closed out to a final score of 10-4 in favor of Monmouth. Wasserman was once again at the front and center of the Hawks’ offensive attack as they improved their record to 5-6 following the victory.
“It was fun to come out on our home field and get that monkey off our back and get that first win at home,” said the senior attack. “We were excited, we got back to playing Monmouth lacrosse, it didn’t really matter what they did, and we were off and running and having fun.” Wasserman now has 29 goals on the season and he extended his program-best points to 27 games. He has scored at least three goals in five consecutive games.
While the Hawks closed out the week by picking up their first home victory of the season, they did drop another game at home last Tuesday to Lafayette by a score of 11-10.
The game was a back-and-forth affair with the score being tied on five separate occasions throughout. The Leopards opened the game by outscoring the blue and white 4-2 in the opening frame. Then, in the second quarter, Lafayette once again outscored the Hawks and took a 5-3 lead into the half.
In the third quarter, Wasserman scored two goals in what was yet another four-goal game for the senior. Jones followed them up with a goal of his own to give Monmouth the lead 6-5. Lafayette quickly responded, however, to tie the game going into the final quarter.
In the fourth quarter, the teams combined for nine goals. The blue and white responded to goals by the Leopards on three separate occasions throughout the frame, but they could never take the lead back. Figel scored a goal to tie the game at seven and senior attack/midfield Sean Tornetta scored to even the game at eight. After that, Lafayette scored three consecutive goals to open an 11-8 lead. While Monmouth scored two more goals late, they could not complete the comeback and lost by a score of 11-10.
The Hawks are now finished with non-conference play this season. Their season will continue with a matchup against conference-opponent Marist on Saturday at 3:00 p.m. at Kessler Stadium.
PHOTO COURTESY of Monmouth Athletics
