Montclair, NJ – The Montclair State men's lacrosse team outscored Vassar College 8-3 over the final two quarters en route to an 11-9 victory on Wednesday evening.
The Red Hawks (3-0) move to 7-0 all-time against Brewers (0-1), with the last two meetings getting decided by two goals each time.
Montclair opened the scoring just two minutes into the game, with sophomore MATT DANCSECS converting a pass from TYLER MCCREERY. Vassar wasted little answering back, as Matthew Lowery leveled the game 23 seconds later. The Brewers tallied the next two goals, before TYLER MCCREERY and Dancsecs flipped roles, with TYLER MCCREERY notching a goal with 8:16 left. The Red Hawks pulled even at three 20 seconds later, with MIKE MCCREERY netting unassisted tally.
Off the ensuing faceoff, Lowery burned the Red Hawks again, scoring off the faceoff seven seconds after the MIKE MCCREERY goal. Vassar used that momentum to score the next two goals, and after a scoreless second quarter, took a 6-3 advantage into halftime.
The Red Hawks used halftime to regroup, and cut into the Vassar lead 5:42 into the third period. CHRISTIAN BOYLE found SKYLER FRANCISCO, who buried the chance and trimmed the deficit to two. Junior ROBERT BRENNAN buried a man-up tally three minutes later, and sophomore JOE COVINO tied the game with 5:17 left in the third off a feed from JON LANZALOTTO.
Brennan netted his second man-up goal of the night to give MSU a lead, but Vassar was able to answer right back as Logan Hyde notched an unassisted goal to send the game tied into the fourth and final stanza. Nearly five and a half minutes went by in the period before Montclair grabbed the lead for good. Brennan completed his hat-trick with 9:36 to go, with TYLER MCCREERY gaining an assist.
Staked to the lead, the McCreery brothers linked up for marker eight seconds later. Junior KYLE MATTHEWS won the faceoff and flipped the pass to MIKE MCCREERY. He found brother Tyler wide open in front to stretch the lead to two. Dancsecs completed his three-goal evening with the next two tallies, including a man-up goal with 3:02 remaining. Vassar registered two late goals but were unable to complete a comeback.
Dancsecs fired a team-high 11 shots as he tallied three goals and an assist, with TYLER MCCREERY totaling two goals and four assists.
Defensively, sophomore TYLER BALL caused a team-high four turnovers while adding five ground balls. WILSON SMITH contributed three caused turnovers and six ground balls, with MATTHEW MCLAREN making eight saves in goal. Devin Lee made 10 stops in net for Vassar with Lowery winning 13-of-23 faceoffs.
The Red Hawks return home on Saturday, hosting the University of Scranton at 12 pm. Montclair is 5-6 all-time against the Royals but have won the last two meetings, including an 18-9 win last year. JESSE JAMES WEST tallied four goals in the win.
