Despite a hat trick from senior Collin Fogerty and a career best on faceoffs from freshman Isaac Vanzomeren, the NJIT men's lacrosse team fell to 1-8 (1-6 AE) on the season with a 14-9 loss to the Hartford Hawks Saturday afternoon at Al-Marzook Field at Alumni Stadium. Fogerty added an assist to his season-high three goals - all in the second half - to post his third four-point outing of the season (1 G, 3 A vs Stony Brook on Apr. 10; 2 G, 2 A at UMass Lowell on Mar. 27). The hat trick is the first for Fogerty since Feb. 8, 2020 at Monmouth and the fifth of his career. Vanzomeren was 17-for-26 on faceoffs against Hartford (2-5, 2-5 AE), besting his season-high of 16 from the UMass Lowell game and tying Tyler Stevenson (at Hampton, Apr. 15, 2017) for the second-most in Highlander history. Sophomore Gavyn Willson and freshman Jack Bowie each added two points on a goal and an assist while freshman Logan Hone, redshirt sophomore Keegan Ford, freshman Garrett Muscatella, and senior Max Wilson each contributed a goal. Ford and Wilson's scores were their first goals of the season. Vanzomeren led the NJIT defense with five ground balls while sophomore Liam Brown (38:21, 10 saves) and freshman Bryce Zell (21:39, five saves) both saw time in goal. Hartford jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the opening quarter but NJIT trimmed the Hawks' lead to one before the period ended with goals from Hone (5:15) and Willson (4:38) less than 40 seconds apart. The second quarter started in the same fashion as the first - with Hartford scoring the first three goals and NJIT answering with two of its own. This time, Bowie (6:32) and Keegan Ford (4:44 from Fogerty) scored to cut Hartford's lead to two (6-4) but the Hawks tacked on two more scores to put NJIT behind 8-4 at half. The third quarter saw the Highlanders score two of the first three goals (Fogerty at 11:56, Muscatella at 11:18) to move within three (9-6) but Hartford once again scored three straight to extend its advantage to six, 12-6. Fogerty would end the Hawks' run with his second goal with 4:20 left off a pass from Willson. Hartford scored the first two goals of the fourth to go ahead 14-7 late in the period. A final goal by Fogerty (2:34) and Wilson's first goal since Feb. 8, 2020 at Monmouth (1:46) rounded out the scoring in the contest. NEXT UP NJIT will take on UAlbany in its final road game of the season on Saturday April 24 at 4 p.m.