Montclair, NJ – The Montclair State men's lacrosse team continued its stronghold on the Skyline Conference Championship as the top-seeded Red Hawks collected their seventh straight conference title with and 11-4 victory over Stockton University on Saturday afternoon.

Montclair extended its winning streak to seven games as it also claimed the league's automatic bid to the NCAA Division III Men's Lacrosse Championship. The Red Hawks, now 13-5, will learn their NCAA fate on Sunday, May 3 at 9:30 pm when the full bracket is unveiled on a live selection show. The appearance in the national tournament will be MSU's seventh which have all coincided with its recent run of success in the Skyline the last several years.

Junior midfielder ZACH SCHRECK had two goals and an assist and was named the tournament's Most Valuable Player, however, Montclair had many who could have walked away with the honor on Saturday. Sophomore BLASE MANTINEO was dominant at the "X" winning 17-of-19 faceoffs in addition to scooping up 12 ground balls, one shy of the single-game record set by BRAD PIETRUCHA in last year's Skyline championship game.

Junior CONNOR CUNNINGHAM had three goals and an assists while classmate BRETT MANGAN added a goal and four assists to finish the tournament with six goals and four assists. Schreck tallied nine goals in the two-game tournament.  Meanwhile the MSU defense was outstanding as it held the Ospreys (12-5) scoreless for 37 minutes.

The Red Hawks even got a surprise performance from sophomore midfielder COREY CARLSON, who scored the first two goals of the game. Carlson, who had just three entering Saturday's game, put Montclair on the board with 10:04 left in the opening period as he took a feed from Mangan right in front of the goal, putting it past Stockton keeper Eric Leonard, who had come up with saves on MSU's first two shots on the goal. The same combo of Carlson and Mangan combined on the next goal five minutes later as Montclair went up 2-0 with 5:26 to play.

Stockton would get find the back of the next less than minute later. Max Beck forced a turnover and then made a 40-yard clearing pass to Nick Bologno who ran the final 30 yards before unleashing a shot into the back of the net making the score 2-1.

But that would be the last goal for Stockton until early in the fourth period. Despite holding the Ospreys from scoring, Montclair State wasn't able to widen its lead as Leonard was spectacular making 11 first-half saves.

Cunningham was able to get one of the few shots on goal past Leonard with 1:39 left. The junior forced a turnover on a clearing attempt, picked up the ground ball and raced in on the right side letting go of a shot that beat Leonard inside the near post for the 3-1 MSU advantage after one period. SHANE RAYMOND would get the only goal in the second as the Red Hawks led by three heading into the break.

Both teams would put up defensive efforts through the first 10 minutes of the third quarter before Montclair broke through as Mangan set up Cunningham for the latter's 28^th of the year and a 4-1 Red Hawks lead with 4:04 to go. ZACH SCHRECK added another with 85 seconds remaining in the period as Montclair led 6-1 heading into the final period.
After combining for seven goals in the first three quarters, the two teams combined for eight in the final 15 minutes.

Stockton's Mike Caposella ended the Osprey's scoring drought with 11:37 left however Cunningham countered with his third of the contest 1:09 later for a 7-2 MSU lead. Caposella grabbed a pass from James O'Donnell through traffic with 9:09 left for his second goal but the Osprey's momentum lasted only a minute as Raymond set up Schreck upping the score to 8-3.

The goal ignited a four-score run by the Red Hawks. Mangan scored off an assist from MICHAEL SCHRECK and SHAUN STERNER followed 27 seconds later making the score 10-3. ZACH SCHRECK found MICHAEL JEVIC for the final MSU tally with 2:32 left.

Chris Kaczmarski connected with five seconds remaining for the final margin.

Jones had nine saves for Montclair State, which outshot Stockton 50-22 in the game. RYAN TOTIN led MSU with five ground balls while Jones and Raymond had four apiece. Leonard ended the game with 15 saves for Stockton.