Phillylacrosse.com, Posted 5/7/17
From Press Release and Staff Report
The No. 1 seed Monmouth University men’s lacrosse team captured its first MAAC Tournament Championship with a thrilling 9-8 victory over No. 3 and host Marist on Sunday morning at Tenney Stadium at Leonidoff Field.
PA grads that play for Monmouth include (from left) Tyler Keen (Downingtown West), Andrew Grajewski (La Salle), Zack Schleicher (Conestoga), Hunter Jones (Abington), Kevin Murphy (Penn Charter), Justin Schwenk (Spring-Ford), Nick Hreshko (La Salle), Dillon Smart (Garnet Valley), Eric Berger (Penn Charter), Sean Tornetta (Perkiomen Valley), Chris Daly (Lower Merion) , Jake Henze (CB South). Missing Matt Worrall (Kennett) – Photo for Phillylacrosse.com
The Hawks – coached by Ridley grad Brian Fisher – earned the MAAC’s automatic bid into the 17-team NCAA Tournament field and will learn their NCAA fate on Sunday evening at 9 p.m. during the ESPNU Tournament selection show.
Monmouth also extended the nation’s longest winning streak to 11 games with the win.
Monmouth built a 6-2 lead in the second quarter before Marist stormed back with a five-goal run to take a 7-6 lead with two minutes remaining in the third quarter.
The Hawks answered with a run of three straight goals, started by a Chris Daly (Lower Merion) goal with eight seconds remaining in the third quarter. Bryce Wasserman’s over-the-shoulder backhander put the Hawks in front early in the fourth and Dylan Schulte (Seneca-NJ) scored with 5:09 to play to make it 9-7.
Marist pulled within one with a minute remaining and won the ensuing faceoff, but Monmouth’s defense held the Red Foxes on the game’s final possession to secure the win.
Tyler Keen (Downingtown West) had two goals and two assists for Monmouth while Daly and Schulte (two GBs) each scored twice. Goalie Nick Hreshko (La Salle) posted 12 saves, Justin Schwenk (Spring-Ford) won 10 of 20 faceoffs and Jake Henze (Central Bucks South) had a groundball.
Jimmy Murphy (Hatboro-Horsham) had two groundballs and a caused turnover for Marist, coached by St. Joseph’s University grad Keegan Wilkinson.