WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – Despite three goals from Dan Bloodgood (Jackson, NJ/Freehold Township) and 12 saves from goalkeeper Nick Hreshko (Warrington, PA/La Salle College H.S.), the Monmouth University men's lacrosse team fell to intrastate rival Rutgers, 12-6, Saturday afternoon at Monmouth Stadium. The Hawks, who rallied from a four-goal deficit to cut it one in the second half, suffers their first loss of the season and drops to 2-1, while the 16th-ranked Scarlet Knights improve to 5-0 with the victory.
“Rutgers is a very good team with a talented core group of players,” said Head Coach Brian Fisher. “When you play against good competition you have to keep your focus and be sharp for 60 minutes. We played well for stretches of the game but cannot afford to make as many mistakes as we did today and expect to come away with a win. While we are disappointed with today's outcome, we have a lot to build on coming out of a good week of practice and are looking forward to playing again on Tuesday.”
Rutgers jumped out to a three goal lead 5:02 in the game before Bloodgood broke the ice for the Blue and White with 3:35 left in the opening quarter. The Scarlet Knights added a pair of goals in the final 10 seconds, including Scott Bieda's marker with two-tenths of a second left, to take a 5-1 advantage into the second frame.
Monmouth climbed back in the second quarter, scoring a pair of goals and weathering 14 shots from Rutgers, seven of which were turned aside by Hreshko. Chris Daly (Wynnewood, PA/Lower Merion) notched his fifth goal of the season off a feed from Bryce Wasserman (Southlake, TX/Grapevine Faith) with over six minutes remaining to bring the Hawks within three, while Bloodgood's man-up marker with 35 seconds left climbed MU within two at the break.
The Hawks continued their offensive attack with their third-straight goal on Bloodgood's unassisted tally 1:20 into the third quarter, but Rutgers' answered with the next two goals over the next five minutes to regain a three-goal advantage. Kevin Murphy found the back of the cage with 3:13 left in the stanza, but Christian Mazzone registered a marker for the Scarlet Knights with 3.5 seconds left to allow RU to enter the fourth quarter in front 8-5. Rutgers built its lead in the first 10 minutes of the final frame, scoring four straight goals to inflate the lead to seven, 12-5, before Eric Berger (Ardsley, PA/Penn Charter) capped off the scoring with his first of the season with 3:25 left in regulation.
Monmouth, which was 16 of 19 on clear attempts, finished 1-of-2 in extra man opportunities, while its defense forced 16 Scarlet Knight turnovers on the afternoon.
The Hawks return to action on Tuesday when it hosts NJIT at 3 p.m. at Monmouth Stadium.
