Men's Lacrosse Remains Undefeated After 11-7 Win At Mount St. Mary's

Published: Sunday, February 18, 2024

The historic start continues.

The NJIT men's lacrosse team improved to 3-0 for the first time in program history with a 11-7 victory over the Mount St. Mary's Mountaineers Sunday afternoon at the Waldron Family Stadium.

HIGHLANDER LEADERS

Jesse Roth recorded his second hat trick in as many games (3 G) to lead the NJIT attack. Arthur Miller and Garrett Muscatella each added two goals while Beck Gozdenovich, Jack Bowie, Billy Kroeger, and Josh Failla scored one apiece.
Owen Corry was the only Highlander with multiple assists (2) while Bowie, Ryan Sininsky, Myles Hickey and Teddy Grimley assisted on a goal each.
Miller also led the team with five ground balls on the day.
Billy Kroeger went 15-23 from the faceoff X while being one of three Highlanders with four ground balls.
Hank Bethel and Sullivan O'Brien recorded four of NJIT's ten caused turnovers (two each).
Liam Brown posted his third double digit save effort of the season, stopping 11 shots.

QUOTE FROM HEAD COACH ERIC WOLF
"The boys showed grit today, said second-year head coach Eric Wolf. "Challenging weather conditions with the wind but they handled it. On the offensive end it took us awhile to find our rhythm but eventually we did. Our defense did a tremendous job all game and eventually we were able to break the game open with transition. Proud of the toughness our group continues to show."

1ST QUARTER

NJIT jumped out to a great start by scoring the first two goals - one from Miller (13:31) and one from Bowie (12:19) - before Mount St. Mary's tied things up late with a pair of goals at the 2:26 and 1:03 marks.

2ND QUARTER

An extremely quiet second period stayed scoreless until the Mountaineers took their first lead of the game at 3-2 with an unassisted goal with 4:46 remaining in the half.
NJIT ended its scoring drought with 1:05 to go as Roth tied the proceedings for a second time, 3-3.

3RD QUARTER

Mount St. Mary's opened the second half scoring (13:03) to take its second lead of the contest at 4-3.
Roth brought the Highlanders level once again, converting with 8:10 to go to make the score 4-4.
The Mountaineers retook the advantage about two and a half minutes later (5:24) as the score moved to 5-4.
NJIT kept things going back-and-forth as Muscatella slotted home a Sininsky pass to tie the game at 5-5 (4:13) and Kroeger netted his first career goal 13 seconds later to put the Highlanders back on top, 6-5.

4TH QUARTER

Muscatella doubled his scoring tally off a dish from Hickey (10:32) and a Grimley-to-Gozdenovich connection gave NJIT an 8-5 edge with 9:55 remaining.
The Mountaineers ended the Highlanders' 4-0 run with a goal at the 5:55 mark to pull back within two, 8-6.
Roth provided an immediate response and secured his hat trick with a goal 33 seconds later (9-6 at 5:22) and Failla added another nine seconds after that (5:13).
Miller scored his second off a Bowie assist to push NJIT's lead to five, 11-6 (2:43).
Mount St. Mary's added a seventh goal with 2:11 remaining but would pull no closer.

OTHER NOTES

Roth recorded four career hat tricks in 39 games at Bellarmine, and has posted half as many three games into his NJIT career.
Failla scored for the first time since posting a goal in last year's game at Binghamton on March 25.
Brown has now made double digit saves in his last 16 games dating back to last season. He also has recorded 598 career saves, two shy of 600. Brown remains in the top five nationally in active career saves.
Today's win was NJIT's first by more than two goals since March 27, 2021, when the Highlanders defeated UMass Lowell on the road, 14-10.
Arthur Miller is the first Highlander to reach double digits in goals on the year (10 G).

NEXT UP
NJIT will kick off a two-game home stretch with its only mid-week game of the season, a meeting with in-state rival Monmouth on Wednesday, Feb. 21 at 7 p.m.