JACKSONVILLE, FL – Monmouth University kicked off its third year of men's lacrosse with an 11-5 victory at Jacksonville University in the sixth annual Moe's Southwest Grill Lacrosse Classic at D.B. Milne Field on Sunday night. In the Hawks' season opener, junior Chris Daly (Wynnewood, PA/Lower Merion) tallied his fourth career hat trick with three goals, while sophomore Bryce Wasserman (Southlake, TX/Grapevine Faith) added two goals and an assist.
Monmouth's defense, which forced 16 turnovers, got an eight-save night from junior goalkeeper Nick Hreshko (Warrington, PA/La Salle College HS) in his first career victory in net, while seven different Hawks scored goals and 10 Hawks registered points on the night.
“It is always a good feeling when you can start the season with a win,” stated head coach Brian Fisher. “I loved how excited we were throughout the game and how hard our guys played. Overall, we had a lot of balance on the offensive end with a lot of guys contributing, while defensively we set the tone with our ride, played stout team defense and got a solid performance from Nick (Hreshko).”
The Hawks jumped out to a 3-0 advantage in the first quarter as Daly broke the seal on the 2016 season at 11:20, giving Monmouth a 1-0 edge off a feed from junior Dan Bloodgood (Jackson, NJ/Freehold Township). Wasserman added an unassisted tally at 9:30 to push the Hawks ahead 2-0 and the Daly-Wasserman duo combined for Monmouth's third straight score with 4:56 left to give the Blue & White the three goal lead.
JU's Dakota Rohlin ended the streak for the Dolphins, notching his second of the season, to make the score 3-1 with 1:51 left in the first.
Graduate student John Castellano (Eastchester, NY/Iona Prep) converted off a feed from junior Tyler Keen (Downingtown, PA/Downingtown West) with 7:34 left in the second quarter to push the Monmouth lead to 4-1, while Wasserman registered his second unassisted tally to give the Hawks a 5-2 edge with 4:01 left in the half. The Dolphins trimmed the Monmouth lead to two at the intermission on Aaron Jollow's score with 2:01 remaining, but would not get any closer.
The Hawks went on a 3-0 run again to open the third quarter, as junior Kevin Murphy (Lafayette Hill, PA/Penn Charter) notched his 11th career goal off a feed from sophomore Dylan Schulte (Southampton, NJ/Bridgeton Academy) with 9:29 left to start the streak. Daly tallied his third of the game to push MU in front 7-3 and on the following faceoff, sophomore Keegan Teluk (Fallston, MD/Fallston) converted from the X and assisted on Bloodgood's first of the year, just five seconds later, as the Hawks grabbed an 8-3 lead.
The Dolphins pulled within 8-4 with 2:39 remaining in the third stanza on a Cody Ford score, as the Blue & White held a four-goal lead through three quarters.
Following a Jacksonville turnover near midfield, junior Neil Ruppert (Chester, MD/St. Mary's) scooped a groundball and found Castellano for his second of the game, and Monmouth took a 9-4 lead with 7:04 left in the game. The Hawks pushed their lead to 10-5 on junior Zack Schleicher's (Wayne, PA/Conestoga) unassisted goal with 1:47 left, while sophomore Grier Wilson (Ijamsville, MD/St. John's Catholic Prep) scored his first career goal with 47 seconds left to account for the final tally.
Fisher added, “For an early season game it was a little sloppy and there is still a lot of things to cleanup but we are excited to earn the win today and have a lot to build on.”
Monmouth, which was 18-of-19 on clears for the game, outshot the Dolphins 36-23 and went 9-of-20 from the faceoff X.
Jacksonville, which opened the season with a 17-16 victory over Vermont, falls to 1-1.
Monmouth returns to action on Tuesday, February 23 when the Hawks travel to Wagner College for a non-conference contest with the Seahawks at 3:00 p.m. at Hameline Field.
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