Monmouth Men's Lacrosse vs. St. Joseph's
(Photo by Riley Lorenz - JSN)

Monmouth Men's Lacrosse Drop Fifth Straight in Loss to St Joseph's

Tuesday afternoon, the Monmouth Hawks hosted the St. Joseph's Hawks (6-4), in both teams final non-conference game of the regular season. Junior Attackmen Carter Paige led St. Joseph’s in their dominating 13-3 victory with six of St Joseph's 13 goals.

Paige got this game starting from the jump, getting St. Joseph's on the board early on a sunny afternoon in West Long Branch, New Jersey. Zach Cole found Page after the opening faceoff win and Paige rifled in his 28th goal of the season. This goal was in the first eight seconds of the game and gave St Joseph's an early lead. 

With 14:40 left in the opening quarter, Monmouth earned their first extra-man opportunity of the day after a slashing call and had a chance to square things off early in the first. Monmouth was unable to convert after a turnover on the man-up, and St Joseph's would capitalize off this turnover with a goal from Tucker Brown with 13:05 remaining the first.

When given a fast-break opportunity, St. Joseph's would take advantage with great ball movement from their offense. This was first shown during the 8:42 mark in the first quarter, when Matt Popeck found Levi Anderson off the fast break. Anderson ripped the top of the net for his first goal of the season, boosting their lead to 3-0.

Monmouth needed to start attacking the net if they wanted any chance to get back into this tough matchup. Grad student Cade Stratton, who has led Monmouth throughout the season, delivered. 

Stratton forced his way to the front of the net after an inside roll giving him his 17th goal of the season, which is tied for best on this team. This was a tough goal from Stratton and it was obvious Monmouth was determined to clash with the Hawks. 

Just one minute after Stratton's goal, Monmouth was able to gain possession once again. Freshman Ryan O'Rourke scored for Monmouth, trimming the lead to 3-2 with 2:09 remaining in the first. Monmouth was finally able to build some momentum in the first quarter, but Paige and St. Joseph's would later dominate the final three quarters. 

Paige showed throughout this game he could score from anywhere on the field, even with one hand on the stick doing it two times . His teammates were able to find him and he would make sure to finish it with a goal earning himself a double hat-trick.

Paige, the Canadian from Ontario, would earn himself his only assist of the afternoon and scored one of his six goals during the second quarter. Down 6-2, Monmouth found themselves with another man-up opportunity and converted with a goal from freshmen Ty Caffarelli with only one second remaining in the first half. 

This would be Monmouth's final goal of the game, and St Joseph’s would outscore them 7-0 in the second half. Paige scored four out of his six goals during the second half, which completely took Monmouth out of the game. Monmouth would go on to lose 13-3 in a tough non-conference matchup, and now fall two games out of .500.

They hope to get back into the win column after starting 4-1 in their first five games. Their final four games will be Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) games and will have a factor on their postseason seeding. Winless in the Colonial Athletic Association thus far, Monmouth will hope to find themselves back to a winning pattern from earlier this season and earn their first CAA win in program history.