WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. (4/16/2016) -- For the second-straight year, the Titans used a dramatic comeback to beat Monmouth as the University of Detroit Mercy men's lacrosse team scored five goals in the final period to beat the Hawks, 9-8, on the road on Saturday afternoon.
Last year, Detroit trailed the Hawks at home, 8-4, entering the fourth period when it ended the game on a 5-0 run. Today, Detroit (2-8, 2-2 MAAC) saw Monmouth (6-5, 2-2 MAAC) begin the game on a 4-0 run, but UDM was able to erase that.
Junior
Kyle Beauregard tied his career high with three goals, including two in the fourth quarter. Senior
Andy Hebden had two goals and an assist, while sophomores
Mark Anstead,
Lucas Ducharme and
Austin Polson-McCannon along with freshman
Patrick Walsh all had goals.
Junior
Jason Weber made 14 saves and senior
Paul Bitetti had two caused turnovers. For the second week in a row, junior
Ben Gjokaj was great in faceoffs winning 14-of-21, including 7-of-9 in the final 15 minutes.
The game was tied at 7-7 with 7:39 left when the Titans surged ahead for good. They had to fight off a man-down situation for 30 seconds and then Weber came up with a save to hold Monmouth scoreless. With less than five minutes remaining, Detroit peppered the Hawks with shots and Hebden would eventually beat the goalie for an 8-7 lead at the 4:20 point in the period.
Weber then came up with another save with 1:47 left and the Titans went on the clear successfully getting it to the offensive zone where with Polson-McCannon netted his first collegiate marker for a 9-7 lead.
Detroit won the battle of ground balls, 28-24, and was 18-of-20 on clears. The Titans also scored on both of their man-up attempts.
Anstead also finished with two assists in the contest. Sophomore
Will Kane had three ground balls and Bitetti, Polson-McCannon, senior
Jordan Yono, junior
Greg Marzec and sophomores
Alec Gilhooly and
Charlie Hayes all had two GB's.
Detroit was behind 5-2 midway through the third quarter when it netted four-straight goals to take the lead. Beauregard started the charge with an unassisted goal at the 7:04 mark. Three minutes later, Hebden had an unassisted tally as UDM went into the fourth trailing by just one, 5-4.
The Titans began the fourth with a faceoff win from Gjokaj and nearly two minutes into the fourth, Hebden found Beauregard and he buried his second of the game to knot it at 5-5. Another faceoff win from Gjokaj off a violation gave Detroit the ball back and less than a minute later, Anstead fed Beauregard for a 6-5 advantage with 12:28 on the clock.
Monmouth came back to tie it at 6-6, but Gjokaj was able to win another faceoff and that set up Anstead's goal to put the red, white and blue ahead 7-6 with 10:26 left.
Detroit found itself down 4-0 midway through the second quarter when Walsh got the zero off the scoreboard with a goal. UDM then took advantage of a Hawks' penalty as Anstead set up Ducharme's strike to make it 4-2 at the break. Monmouth would eventually take a 5-2 lead when the Titans started their comeback.
The red, white and blue will return to action next Saturday, April 23, when it heads to upstate New York to battle Jesuit-rival Canisius in another important MAAC showdown.
Game Notes:
Detroit now leads the all-time series, 3-0, with two wins on the road… The five goals in the fourth period matched the Titans season-high in goals in a period as Detroit had five in the fourth at Manhattan a few weeks ago… Detroit came into the game second in the MAAC and 20th in the nation on the extra attack scoring at 40.0% (12-of-30)… Beauregard also had three goals against Robert Morris last season, which included the game-winner in overtime… Polson-McCannon had not attempted a shot in his career prior to his goal… Anstead ran his point-scoring streak to 24-straight games, his entire career so far… Bitetti now has 58 caused turnovers in his career, just two behind Jason McDonald '12 for third place in school history… Gjokaj is now 49-of-75 (65.3%) in faceoffs in MAAC games, including 29-of-43 (67.4%) in the last two games…
