Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 3/2/15
From Press Release and Staff Report
Photos for Phillylacrosse.com
Monmouth University earned the first win in its men’s lacrosse program history on Saturday afternoon, defeating Rutgers 10-9 at High Point Solutions Stadium in Piscataway, as freshman Bryce Wasserman and sophomore Tyler Keen (Downingtown West) tallied three goals each and sophomore Chris Daly (Lower Merion) added three assists for the Hawks (1-1).
After the Scarlet Knights tied the contest at 8-8 midway through the fourth quarter, senior Zach Johannes scored on a pass from Dylan Schulte (Seneca, NJ) to give the Hawks a 9-8 edge with 5:32 remaining. Daly and Wasserman connected for a second time in the game 50 seconds later to give the Blue & White a two-goal advantage.
Rutgers climbed with 10-9 with 4:00 minutes left, but Garrett Conaway denied Jeff George from scoring his fifth goal of the year with 18 seconds remaining, and Ryan Horsch collected the ground ball, to seal the road victory.
Conaway tied a career-high with 14 saves in cage for the Hawks, earning his first career win.
Second-year head coach Brian Fisher, a graduate of Ridley High and Rutgers, stated, “I am so proud of and excited for our guys with the way we played this afternoon. It was a back-and-forth game and to buckle down and make plays in the end to earn the win is very exciting.”
Fisher added, “We have felt it was only a matter of time before we broke through and got the first win. We have been improving throughout the preseason and had a great week of practice heading into today. We are going to enjoy this one, but with a quick turnaround for a game on Tuesday, we will get back to work tomorrow.”
Wasserman, who now has four goals on the season, recorded his first multi-goal game, while Daly, last year’s team-leader in goals, assists and points, and a MAAC All-Rookie Team selection, notched a career-best three assists. Johannes and Keen each added a pair of goals, while Schulte’s assist was the first of his career.
Rutgers opened a 2-0 lead in the first quarter, before Wasserman tallied an unassisted score at 7:07, while Johannes’ first goal of the season, and 10th of his career, with seven seconds left in the period, pulled Monmouth within 3-2.
The Hawks, who outscored the Scarlet Knights 4-1 in the second quarter, tied the game at 3-3 when Daly found Wasserman at 12:37, while Keen added his second goal to give MU a 4-3 lead with 9:57 left in the half. Monmouth entered halftime with a two-goal advantage, 6-4, behind unassisted scores from Keen and Daly.
Rutgers scored the first three goals out of the intermission to grab a 7-6 lead with 4:02 remaining in the third quarter, but Zack Schleicher’s (Conestoga) first career tally, knotted the contest for a fourth time, 7-7, with 11 seconds left in the stanza.
Andrew Grajewski (La Salle) led the defense while Eric Berger (Penn Charter) added two gorundballs and a caused turnover and Stephen Murawksi (Cherokee) added two caused turnovers and a groundball for Monmouth.
Keen scored his second of the game just 2:11 into the fourth quarter to reclaim an 8-7 edge for the Hawks, before Rutgers’ George knotted the game at 8-8 with 7:07 left.
Christian Trasolini scored three times for Rutgers, which falls to 2-3 on the year.
Rutgers, of the Big Ten Conference, outshot Monmouth 39-29 in the game.
Monmouth returns to action on Tuesday when the Hawks host Wagner College at 3 pm at Monmouth Stadium, in a rescheduled game from February 21.
Leave a Reply