FINAL SCORE
No. 10/9 Villanova 10 (6-1)
Monmouth 6 (4-3)
 
WEST LONG BRANCH, NJ – Nationally-ranked Villanova built a big halftime lead that the Monmouth men's lacrosse team was unable to overcome in an eventual 10-6 loss to the visiting Wildcats on Saturday afternoon at Kessler Stadium.

After Connor Macrae opened the scoring, Villanova responded with eight consecutive goals to take a seven-goal advantage into intermission. Monmouth came out of the locker room with a pair of goals and three out of four in the third period, but the deficit was too much to come back from in the four-goal setback.
 
Macrae and Cade Stratton scored twice each, while Matt Karsian and Ryan O'Rouke added goals for Monmouth. The Wildcats were led offensively by Matt Campbell's four goals and Patrick Daly's hat trick.

GAME NOTES & QUOTES

"It was a great environment playing at Kessler Stadium this afternoon and a fun game to be a part of with a lot of back and forth action. We are still learning how to compete with good teams and the difference in the game was where we failed to capitalize on certain plays and they made us pay for our mistakes. In the second half today we put together some of our best lacrosse of the season so far and have a lot to build on heading into our CAA home opener next week."
- Head Coach Brian Fisher

- Monmouth is now 1-1 all-time against Villanova.
- The Blue and White dropped to 1-1 in home games this season.
- Monmouth fell to 0-2 this season against ranked opponents.
- The Hawks wore their chrome helmets with white jerseys and white shorts.
 
NUMBERS CRUNCH
- Connor Macrae has a team best 14 goals this season and became the fourth Hawk in program history to score 50 career goals.
- Cade Stratton has 13 goals this season and 54 for his career.
- Matt Karsian put in his sixth goal of the year and the 11th of his career.
- Ryan O'Rouke scored the second goal of his freshman season.
- Monmouth had five assists on his six goals with Stratton, Karsian, Ty Caffarelli, Sean Ketchen and Caden Kesslering registering helpers.
- Kesselring picked up his first-career assist.
- Caffarelli extended his points streak to seven games with his first-career assist.
- Matt Soutar led Monmouth with seven ground balls.
- Ryan Morris and Michael Quigg led the team with three caused turnovers each.

NEXT UP
Monmouth will host Stony Brook next Saturday, March 25 at 12 noon at Kessler Stadium. The game will be broadcast live on SNY and FloSports.