EASTON, PA. - Freshman Bryce Wasserman (Southlake, Texas/Grapevine Faith) and sophomore Chris Daly (Wynnewood, Pa./Lower Merion) scored three goals each and combined for nine points, but the Monmouth University men's lacrosse team fell at Lafayette College 8-7 at Fisher Stadium in non-conference action on Tuesday night.
Monmouth, which rallied from a 6-3 deficit to start the fourth quarter, scored four straight goals, including two each from Daly and Wasserman, to take a 7-6 lead with 4:11 left, but surrendered a pair of scores to the Leopards in the final 1:32, including the game-winner with 45 seconds left, to fall to 4-5 overall.
Wasserman scored three goals to increase his team-leading total to 13, while he also added two assists for a single-game best five points for the rookie. Daly added three goals and an assist, as the attackman notched four points for a second time this season, and posted a minimum of four points in a game for the fifth time in his career.
"We still have a great deal to learn and while we were not very sharp tonight, It was certainly a positive to see our guys continue to grind, overcome some adversity and come from behind to take the lead in the fourth quarter," stated head coach Brian Fisher. "Credit Lafayette for taking advantage of our mistakes, but in the end, our sloppy play caught up to us tonight."
Daly's first goal of the night tied the game at 1-1 with 2:12 left in the first quarter off a feed from Wasserman, while sophomore Dylan Schulte (Southampton, N.J./Bridgeton Academy) pushed MU in front 2-1, with his first career goal 4:02 into the second period.
Lafayette, which led 4-2 at the half, scored four straight times to lead 5-2 with 13:22 showing in the third quarter, before Wasserman tallied his first on the evening to get Monmouth within 5-3 with 7:12 remaining in the stanza. The Leopards responded 12 seconds later to push their lead to 6-3, which carried to the end of the quarter.
Just 43 seconds into the final period, Wasserman fed Daly to get Monmouth within 6-4, before Wasserman netted consecutive scores for the Blue & White to knot the game at 6-6 with 7:03 left. Daly scored his third off a pass from John Castellano (Eastchester, N.Y./Iona Prep), his first career assist, to give the Hawks a 7-6 advantage with 4:11 showing.
The Leopards (2-8) tied the game at 7-7 with 1:32 left, and after winning the following face-off, registered the game-winner with 45 seconds remaining.
Lafayette outshot Monmouth 42-32 as senior goalkeeper Garrett Conaway (Marriottsville, Md./Liberty) made a career-best 16 saves for the Hawks.
Monmouth returns to action on Saturday, when the Hawks host Canisius in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference action at Monmouth Stadium at 3:00 p.m.
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