WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – Five different players scored, including two from Dan Bloodgood (Jackson, NJ/Freehold Township), Bryce Wasserman (Southlake, TX/Grapevine Faith) and Eamon Campbell (Massapequa, NY/St. Anthony's), but the Monmouth University men's lacrosse team fell to visiting Saint Joseph's, 18-8, Saturday afternoon at Monmouth Stadium. With the loss, MU falls to 3-2 on the year, while the visiting Hawks improve to 4-2 on the season.
SJU scored the opening goal 2:07 into the affair on the first of four Mike Rastivo goals. MU responded less than four minutes later when Hunter Jones (Abington, PA/Abington Senior) connected with Bloodgood for the extra-man marker to knot the score at 1-1. St. Joe's rattled off the next 10 goals before Chris Daly registered an unassisted tally with a minute left in the half.
After Saint Joseph's scored the first two goals of the second half, Wasserman netted two goals of his own to make the score 13-4. Following a marker from SJU's Kevin Foster, Gordon Phillips (Port Coquittam, BC/Trinity Pawling [NY]) got onto the scoresheet for the Blue and White, recording his first goal of the year off a feed from Connor Vanderbeek (Bridgewater, NJ/Immaculata [High Point]). Daly followed suit, capitalizing on a man-up opportunity off a pass from Bloodgood with 2:36 left in the quarter. SJU notched the final goal of the third and stuck again 41 seconds into the final stanza to push its lead to 10. The two sides exchanged goals over the final five minutes with Campbell scoring his second and third goals of the year with the latter coming off a dish from Griffin Figel (Basking Ridge, NJ/Bridgewater-Raritan).
Nick Hreshko (Warrington, PA/La Salle College H.S.) made eight saves for Monmouth in the loss, while Grant Gillan (Lewes, DE/Cape Henlopen) turned away a shot in a full quarter of action. T.J. Jones recorded four saves en route to the victory for the visiting Hawks.
Monmouth, which wrapped up a three-game homestand, will travel to Lexington, VA to take on VMI on Tuesday at 3:00 p.m.
