PHILADELPHIA – The home Hawks jumped out to 4-0 lead and never looked back as the Saint Joseph's men's lacrosse team downed Monmouth, 9-2, on Saturday afternoon on Sweeney Field. The win marks SJU's third of the season as the Hawks now stand at 3-3 overall.
Saint Joseph's (3-3) got on the scoreboard first on a score from senior attack Kyle Bruun at the 8:59 mark. Sophomore midfielder Kevin Reidinger scored just 1:12 later on a dish from senior midfielder Josh Cavanaugh to put the Hawks up by two before sophomore attack Mike Rastivo netted a pair of unassisted scores (4:06, 2:24) to close out the 4-0 run.
Monmouth (2-2) tallied back-to-back goals in the second period as Tyler Keen (11:55) and Bryce Wasserman (3:35) combined for the visiting Hawks' only two scores of the day to close the deficit to two goals, 4-2, heading into the halftime break.
From that point on, the home Hawks dominated, scoring the final five goals of the day. Redshirt junior attack Kevin Forster (14:08) and junior attack Pat Swanick (7:02) fired off unassisted scores and freshman attack Chris Blewitt netted his seventh goal of the season on a dish from senior defenseman Will Farrell to extend SJU's lead, 7-2, with 1:41 left in the third.
Graduate student attack Ryan McGee would score at the 4:59 mark of the fourth on an assist from Swanick and Rastivo added his third goal of the day on an assist from Blewitt en route to the 9-2 final.
For the game, Saint Joseph's owned a 32-23 advantage in shots, including a 21-9 first half, and a 36-20 advantage in ground balls. Rastivo (7) and McGee (6) combined for 13 shots and seven ground balls.
Saint Joseph's sophomore midfielder Mike Lanham went a dominating 11-of-15 from the face-off, including a perfect 3-of-3 in the second period, and added a game-high seven ground balls.
The home Hawks were also 15-of-17 in clear attempts and forced 10 Monmouth turnovers, with half of those coming in the form of failed clear attempts.
In his first start of the season, senior goalkeeper Dustin Keen made 14 saves in the full 60:00 for his 12th career win in net. Keen made seven saves in the first three periods and added seven in the fourth period alone.
Saint Joseph's will play #7 Virginia this Tuesday, March 10. Opening face-off at Klöckner Stadium is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
