The Monmouth University men's lacrosse team held St. Bonaventure to one goal after the first quarter in an eventual 12-5 victory for the Hawks in the MAAC Semifinal on Wednesday afternoon at Kessler Stadium. Monmouth's win secures a spot in Saturday's MAAC Men's Lacrosse Championship game against the winner of Manhattan and Canisius. Following a high-scoring opening 15 minutes that ended with the Bonnies holding a 4-3 lead, Monmouth took over and scored five straight and nine of the next 10 goals to win going away. Connor Macrae scored a hat trick and assisted on another goal, Matt Soutar won 17-of-21 faceoffs and Noah Lode stood tall with nine saves in Monmouth's best performance of the season. NOTES & QUOTES "The staff and I are so happy for the guys and that we were able to earn a victory today and give ourselves a chance for a championship this Saturday. To win in the postseason you have to have guys step up and not only play well but also at a high-level and we had a number of those guys come through for us this afternoon. We'll enjoy this win tonight but also on a quick turnaround we will look to clean up a few things, get healthy and prepare for another challenge this Saturday." - Head Coach Brian Fisher "We had great efforts on both sides of the ball today and Noah Lode had an unbelievable game for us in goal. We are celebrating the win for now and look forward to finding out who we will play in the Championship on Saturday." - Senior Captain Chris Hervada - The Hawks improved to 7-2 on the year, their best nine game start in program history. - The Hawks are now 6-0 at home in 2021. The 6-0 home record matches the 2017 season and team record. - Monmouth improved to 4-3 all-time in the MAAC Tournament and 2-1 at Kessler Stadium. - Monmouth will make its second appearance all-time in the MAAC Championship. - The Hawks improved to 6-2 all-time when wearing their white helmets with white jerseys and white shorts. - Monmouth leads the all-time series with St. Bonaventure, 3-0. - The game was the first postseason meeting between the two sides. NUMBERS CRUNCH - Monmouth's defense held an opponent to five goals for the second time this season. - Monmouth improved to 2-0 in 2021 and 18-2 all-time when allowing five goals or less. - Dillon Smart led Monmouth with three caused turnovers and added five ground balls in the win. - Smart became Monmouth's all-time leader with 122 career ground balls, passing Dylan Schulte '18. - Matt Soutar was excellent at the faceoff X, winning 17-of-21. Soutar also led the team with nine ground balls. - Noah Lode made nine saves in goal for Monmouth and only allowed one goal in the final 45 minutes. - Connor Macrae led Monmouth with four points, including his second hat trick of the 2021 season. - Macrae has 17 points and 12 goals this year, including three man-up goals. - Zach Clemente also had a four-point afternoon, with a pair of goals. Clemente has 10 goals this year and 39 for his career and is Monmouth's active leader with 49 career points. - Cade Stratton leads Monmouth with 23 points on the year (14 G, 9 A) and increased his career points total to 48 (29 G, 19 A) after scoring twice and contributing one assist. - Dwayne Mattushik also had two goals and an assist, giving him nine goals and 12 points in 2021. - Max Brooks had a goal and an assist to extend his point streak to 10 games. Brooks is second on the team with 18 points on the year (11 G, 7 A) and has 37 for his career (22 G, 15 A). - David Cormack had one goal and one assist in the game. Cormack has five goals and eight assists this year and 14 goals and 10 assists for his career. - Andrew Duswalt scored his fifth goal of 2021 and has four goals in the last five games. UP NEXT Monmouth will play the winner of tonight's Manhattan/Canisius game. If Manhattan advances, the Hawks and Jaspers will play on Saturday in Riverdale, NY. If Canisius wins, Monmouth will host the MAAC Championship game.