[Men's Lacrosse] St. Ambrose victorious over Vikings

St. Ambrose shut out Missouri Valley in the first quarter on Saturday afternoon en route to a 21-9 victory in Davenport. SAU moves to 12-2 on the year and will play in the KCAC Tournament Semifinals, while MVC ends their season at 3-8.

Cole Danner got the Bees on the board first, scoring four minutes into the quarter with an assist from Hayden Latham. After a faceoff win from Hunter Northway, Danner found Michael Keating for a 2-0 St. Ambrose lead. Nolan Hayes turned away a shot from Missouri Valley's Sebastien Guillaume to keep the lead at two with 10:25 remaining in the period. Matt Madril, Michael Shakerin, and Cameron Daugherty-Giampaolo would each score for the Bees, and Hayes would make four more saves in the quarter as St. Ambrose would take a 5-0 lead. 

SAU would score twice to start the second, but the Vikings would get two goals of their own just 18 seconds apart for a 7-2 score. St. Ambrose would rattle off the next six goals as Justin O'Marrah, Isaiah Hahn, Northway, Daugherty-Giampaolo, Danner, and Madril each scored to push the lead to 10 with 6:47 remaining in the quarter. MVC would get the final two goals of the frame with the score 13-4 at the half. 

The Bees would be outscored in the third as the Vikings would put up four goals in the frame. St. Ambrose would score the first two goals in the quarter, but Missouri Valley would add two of their own. After Joseph Henderson found Shakerin for a man-up goal with 5:26 left in the period, MVC would get two more goals to close out the third for a 16-8 score.

St. Ambrose would dominate the fourth quarter, allowing just six shots and coming close to another quarter shut out. The Bees would score five straight times - getting goals from Danner, Hahn, Shakerin, O'Marrah, and Jacob Blair before Missouri Valley scored with 15 seconds left for the 21-9 final score. 

Shakerin was the leader in goals with four and added three assists. Danner and O'Marrah each scored three. Northway won 19 of 32 faceoffs and Hayes made a total of 20 saves. St. Ambrose had 76 shot attempts while the visitors had just 33.

The Bees will face Benedictine in the KCAC Seminfinals on Thursday, April 22 at 1 p.m. in Atchison, Kansas. Benedictine won their quarterfinal match 19-11 over Ottawa. The two teams played each other on April 3 with St. Ambrose getting a 14-11 win.