Ithaca, NY – For over three quarters the Montclair State men's lacrosse team gave No. 1 Ithaca all it could handle. However, the top-ranked Bombers scored the final three goals as it knocked off the Red Hawks 11-8 in the second round of the NCAA Tournament at Higgins Field on Saturday.

Josh Della Puca scored what turned out to be the game-winning goal sending the Bombers (20-1) into next Wednesday's quarterfinal against Tufts University.

SHAUN STERNER and BRADY WULSTER scored three goals apiece for Montclair State, which ended the most successful season in program history at 13-7. The Red Hawks, who had their nine-game winning streak snapped, were making their eighth consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance and posted its first NCAA victory on Wednesday with a 10-7 victory at Keene State.

Montclair took Ithaca's best shots in the game in the game but kept coming back. Stephen Morrell and Dell Puca gave Ithaca a 2-0 lead in the first but that was answered quickly as Sterner scored with 8:39 left following by a goal from COREY CARLSON knotting the game up with just over five minutes to play in the opening period.  Morrell tallied with two minutes but Wulster connected with eight ticks forging  3-3 deadlock after one.

The Bombers' Jake Cotton scored twice and assisted on the other goal as Ithaca registered all three in the second period taking a 6-3 advantage into halftime. Montclair State attacked that deficit in the third as Sterner and Wulster scored two minutes apart making the score 6-5. A goal by John Januszkiewicz put Ithaca up by two goals heading into the final period.

Sterner and Michael Walker's goals to begin the fourth kept the game at 8-6 before Montclair got the next two. Wulster's third off a feed from BRETT MANGAN with 9:02 to go cut the lead to one and CONNOR CUNNINGHAM scored 61 seconds later as Montclair State tied the game at 8-8.

The Red Hawks won the ensuing faceoff however Keith Morrissey forced a turnover. Andrew Deitz picked up the ground ball which turned into a quick transition that the Bombers capitalized on as Della Puca scored with 6:06 left.  Ithaca immediately tacked on another 10 seconds later when Eli Gobrecht scooped up the ground ball off the face off and found Cody Swing for a man-up goal extending the lead to 10-8.

Januszkiewicz added the final goal with 2:09 remaining for the final margin.

Goalkeeper LUCAS JONES stopped 14 shots for the Red Hawks with BLASE MANTINEO dominating on faceoffs winning 15-of-22 with nine ground balls. RYAN YOUNG, STEVE DANYLUK, RYAN TOTIN and RYAN ANZALONE each forced two turnovers with Young recording four ground balls.