2019 Men’s College Lacrosse Year In Review: #57 Monmouth Hawks

With the 2019 college lacrosse season complete, it’s time to look back at how all 73 teams did during the season, along with an early look at each squad for 2020.

Note: These are not end of season rankings.

Here’s our last five Year In Review posts we’ve done:

• #62 Furman
• #61 St. John’s
• #60 VMI
• #59 Michigan
• #58 Colgate

To see all of our posts, check out the 2019 Year In Review section on the site.

Let’s continue our 2019 Year In Review!

#57 Monmouth Hawks

Conference: MAAC
2019 Record: 4-8 (3-4 in MAAC)
Head coach: Brian Fisher (6th Season)

Statistical Leaders

Goals: Griffin Figel and Cade Stratton (12)
Assists: Griffin Figel (17)
Points: Griffin Figel (29)
Faceoffs: Ian Weinberg (112-of-221; 50.7%)
Ground balls: Chris Hervada (40)
Caused turnovers: Shaun Napolitano (18)
Goals against average: Noah Lode (9.19 GAA)
Save percentage: Noah Lode (54.2%)

Personnel Losses

Key seniors departing: A Griffin Figel (12 Gs, 17 As, 20 GBs, 3 CTs), LSM Shaun Napolitano (18 CTS, 27 GBs), LSM Gordon Phillips (11 CTs, 32 GBs, 25% FOs, 4 As), SSDM Jake Henze (2 CTs, 7 GBs)
Senior scoring departing: 36 of 126 points (28.6%)
Senior starts lost: 18 of 120 (15%)

Season Summary

It was certainly not Monmouth’s best season, missing the MAAC Tournament for the first time since they began as a Division I program in 2014. They did lose assistant coach Bill McCutcheon midway through fall ball to Wagner and hired Daniel Lawrence to replace him.

But despite the record, all but two of Monmouth’s losses came within four goals. They certainly played their opponents tough the entire season even with some low points, such as losing attackman Eamon Campbell due to injury.

Their first win of the season came against McCutcheon and the Seahawks. Despite trailing 5-2 at halftime, the Hawks came back to tie the game at six and also scored the game’s final three goals for a two-goal win. But a few days later, Monmouth’s hawks gave up six straight goals to Saint Joseph’s hawks before scoring three straight to end the third quarter. But both teams were shutout in the final 15 minutes en route to a St. Joe’s win.

But perhaps Monmouth’s biggest surprise of the season came against NJIT. The Highlanders went on a 6-0 run en route to an 8-5 upset victory. In conference play, Monmouth came close against Detroit Mercy in a low-scoring 6-4 loss, but managed to win three of their final four games. The lone loss during that time was a one-goal defeat against Quinnipiac.

22 players appeared in at least 10 games this season for the Hawks, with 16 players making at least one start throughout the year. Griffin Figel, defensemen Chris Hervada and Conor Tuturice, and goaltender Noah Lode started all 12 games in 2019.

Looking Ahead

Monmouth saw a point drop of 110 points from the 2018 season. The loss of Bryce Wasserman to graduation was a huge departure for the program. The Hawks will lose their top point producer for the second straight season with Figel gone.

However, the Hawks bring back nearly everyone else from a year ago, including Campbell for a redshirt-senior season. Cade Stratton, Anthony Sardo, Zach Clemente, Brock Anderson, Max Brooks, Casey Kimmel, and J.D. Nozemack join Campbell as eight of Monmouth’s top 10 scorers returning. David Cormack and Ethan Masucci should also make some more impactful contributions.

Tuturice, Hervada, and Dillon Smart all return as starters on defense with Rudy Beck, Garrett Klurman, and Scooter Whiteside as short stick defensive midfielders. Ryan Morris is also a depth defenseman that could see some time at long sick with Napolitano and Phillips gone. Lode is back in goal and so is Ian Weinberg at the faceoff X.

With nearly the same team coming back in 2020, along with some more incoming freshmen, look for Monmouth to return back to the MAAC Tournament.