Previewing Monmouth’s 2020 men’s college lacrosse schedule

The Monmouth Hawks are the 71st team in our 2020 men’s college lacrosse schedule preview series and the eighth team from the MAAC. Mercer finished 4-8 overall in 2019 and 3-4 in MAAC play. The Hawks failed to qualify for the MAAC Tournament.

Here’s their entire 2020 schedule:

Who’s In?

• Mercer Bears (3/7)

Who’s Out?

• NA

Circle These Dates

• 2/8 vs. NJIT: Monmouth and NJIT will be facing off for the sixth consecutive season, dating back to the start of the Highlander program in 2015. While the Hawks won the first four meetings, they suffered a surprising setback last year when NJIT secured an 8-5 win. Monmouth failed to score a goal in a span of 35:29 while the Highlanders scored six in a row.
• 2/25 at Wagner: Monmouth started out very slow in last year’s meeting with the Seahawks as they trailed 5-2 at the half. But the Hawks dominated the final 30 minutes, outscoring Wagner 7-2 en route to a two-goal victory. Former Monmouth assistant Bill McCutcheon is entering his second season as the Seahawks head coach and also brought along another former Monmouth assistant in Marc Zolchonock over the summer.
• 2/29 vs. Saint Joseph’s: St. Joe’s has dominated in the annual battle of the hawks since Monmouth became a D1 program in 2014. St. Joe’s is 6-0 all-time and won last year’s battle 8-6 thanks in part to a six-goal run in a span of 12:34. This year’s meeting is in West Long Branch which doesn’t bode well for Monmouth. In the three meetings on Monmouth’s campus, Saint Joseph’s has scored at least 11 goals in every game. The most Monmouth has scored at home in a game was eight, which was also the highest scoring output in any game against St. Joe’s.
• 4/4 vs. Quinnipiac: As previously mentioned, Monmouth missed out on the MAAC Tournament for the first time since their inaugural year. Three of their four conference losses were by three goals or less, including a one-goal defeat to Quinnipiac. The Bobcats scored four goals in the first and third quarter and were able to stay one step ahead of the Hawks throughout. Quinnipiac will need to replace some scoring with Foster Cuomo and Mike Fletcher both graduated.
• 4/24 vs. Detroit Mercy: The Hawks offense was absent for the first three quarters of last year’s low-scogame against the Titans. After scoring the game’s first goal with 8:50 to go in the opening quarter, Monmouth failed to find the back of the net again until there were 58 seconds left in the third quarter, a span of 37:52. This was despite Monmouth causing 19 turnovers, six of them from Chris Hervada. The Hawks did score twice in the fourth to be within one, but Cam Kostus was able to add an insurance goal to get a two-goal win.