POUGHKEEPSIE, New York – Marist men's lacrosse opened home and conference play with a 10-7 win against Monmouth.
Jake MacGregor matched a career high 16 saves and the Red Foxes were able to find the back of the net for a double digit score against a good Monmouth defense. With the win, Marist improves to 3-3 overall and 1-0 in MAAC play. Monmouth falls to 1-5 and 0-1 in MAAC play.
- After a slow start, Evan Gagne found the back of the net to give Marist a 1-0 lead in the first quarter. Marist won the ensuing face-off and immediately went to work. Jason Intermesoli took the feed from James Lyons to go up 2-0. Monmouth responded with a goal of its own, but Marist's offense kept churning. The quarter was closed out with a buzzed beater goal by Jake Weinman.
- The second quarter was a defensive quarter for the Red Foxes with Marist only managing five shots. Chris Schlappich's goal with 10:03 left in the quarter extended the lead to 5-1. After the goal, Monmouth maintained possession throughout the majority of the quarter. Monmouth scored two more times to cut the deficit to 5-3 to end the half.
- Goals from Schlappich and Jojo Pirreca gave Marist a 7-3 lead with 5:22 left in the third. Monmouth would add a goal in the quarter but a goal by Michael Smith kept Marist's four goal lead to end the quarter.
- Marist's offense opened the fourth quarter with two goals within the first two and a half minutes to take a 10-4 lead. The Red Foxes had a couple miscues in the final frame, turning the ball over six times while only forcing one Monmouth turnover. Monmouth scored its first goal of the quarter with 7:07 left in the game and started to mount a comeback. But Marist had enough of a cushion and was able to burn off clock to walk away with the win.
- Three different players recorded three points: Schlappich (3G), Weinman (2G, 1A) and Pirreca (2G, 1A).
- MacGregor had a .696 save percentage to go along with his 16 saves.
- Marist played great Man-Down defense, holding Monmouth to 0-for-3.
- Monmouth outshot Marist (44 to 30) but was close to even in shots on goal (23 to 20).
- First MAAC opener win since 2016.
- Most goals scored against Monmouth since 2015.
"It feels great to start the conference 1-0 against a huge rival like Monmouth, a team we have tremendous respect for," stated Head Coach
Keegan Wilkinson. "Excited to keep moving forward."
Marist will head to Manhattan to take on the Jaspers on March 23 at 1 PM.
