Men’s lacrosse improved their record to 4-5 on the season and 2-1 in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) play with a dominating 17-8 victory at Siena on Saturday.
It was a resounding bounce back from Monmouth who had fallen in a 9-8 overtime heartbreaker last weekend to conference foe Detroit Mercy.
Senior midfielder Chandler Vanderbeek got the scoring going early with his first goal of the season in the first minute of the game to give the Hawks a 1-0 lead. Junior Griffin Figel took it from there scoring in the third minute and extending his streak of recording a point in every game so far this season.
After freshman midfielder Casey Kimmel continued his impressive rookie season with a man-up goal of his own, Senior attack Bryce Wasserman remained red hot with his first of four goals and seven points on the day to give MU the 4-0 lead. The man-up goal from Kimmel was just one of four on the day for Monmouth who was an efficient 4-6 on extra-man opportunities.
As for Wasserman, the seven points was a career high which also equaled a program record that has only been achieved three times. Leading the Hawks charge isn’t something new for Wasserman as the senior leads the team with 22 goals on the year and 87 for his career. Not to mention it was his 12th career hat trick.
The Hawks went into the second quarter with a 5-1 advantage before the Saints found the back of the net twice to begin the new quarter. It didn’t take long however for Monmouth to regain control of the game as they responded in a huge way scoring the next ten goals, the last coming from junior attack Hunter Jones for his 14th of the season to make the score 15-3.
Siena attempted to come back in the fourth quarter scoring five times, but it was too little too late as the Hawks tacked on two more goals in the quarter to make the final score a 17-8 Monmouth victory.
The 17 goals tied a single game team record for the Hawks who reached the magic number for the second time this season and fourth time in program history. It also wasn’t the first time they had put up 17 on this Saints defense as Monmouth defeated Siena 17-9 in last year’s matchup.
“We had a really good week of practice,” Head Coach Brian Fisher said. “And it showed today as we picked up another conference win.”
The MAAC victory also extended MU’s eight game winning streak in conference road games and improved their all-time record against Siena to an impressive 4-1.
The offense wasn’t the only part of Monmouth’s game that excelled on Saturday, as freshman goalie Noah Lode made an impressive 15 saves on the day which was his sixth game of the year with double-digit saves.
“It feels good to be back on track,” Fisher said. “Especially with a quick break for the holidays followed up by a midweek game at home on the horizon.”
The 4-5 Hawks will return home on Tuesday for the first of four consecutive games at Kessler Stadium where they will take on 2-9 Lafayette at 3:00 p.m.
PHOTO TAKEN by Karlee Sell
