Four late first quarter goals and a solid defensive effort by the Chestnut Hill College men's lacrosse team gave the Griffins their sixth straight win as they defeated league rival Wilmington University 15-10 Wednesday night at Victory field in Lafayette Hill, Pennsylvania.

The Griffins remain unbeaten in Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference games with a 3-0 mark and improve to 7-2 overall.  Wilmington falls to 1-2 in league games and 2-6 overall.

Wednesday's game also saw one of the oldest career records in program history fall as Zach Schultz became the all-time leader in ground balls.  Schultz entered the game with 153 for his career, just six shy of Thomas Carfagna's mark of 159 set from 2010-13.  The senior faceoff specialist picked up his seventh ground ball of the game, and the record, while winning a faceoff at the 3:21 mark of the second quarter.  He went to finish the game with 13 ground balls, giving him 166 for his career and a league-best 76 on the season.

Offensively, sophomore Zachary Jastrzebski scored a career-high five goals while freshman Noah Hammon added four.  Six additional Griffins also added a goal apiece. Hammon also contributed an assist to finish with five points on the night.

Dan Grubb and Chase Snyder had two caused turnovers apiece while Snyder and Jack Clyne had three ground balls apiece.  Schultz won 18 of 28 faceoffs.  Austin Jones had 14 sets in net for the Griffins as he improved to 6-2 on the season.

A tight game for much of the first quarter had the Griffins leading by a goal 2-1 heading into the 2:30 of the period.  Cade Johnson put 'Hill on the board just 1:23 into the game with an unassisted tally only to see the Wildcats even the score a minute later.  Nate Matthews added a score at 8:32 for the 2-1 lead.

Chestnut Hill's offense came on strong in the final 2:30 as Hammon put a shot past the Wildcat goalkeeper at the 2:28 mark and Joseph Lojewski  followed just 30 seconds later.  Thirty-five seconds after that Jason Jenkins II  took a pass from Will Duddy and fired it into the net for a 5-1 lead.   Jastrzebski ended the scoring in the period with his first goal of the game, firing a long shot as time was expiring to make the score 6-1 with just .6 seconds left on the clock.

Wilmington's Logan Stinson opened the second quarter scoring to cut the Griffins' lead to four before Clyne found Jastrzebski open for his second goal of the game at the 7:59 mark.  Hammon scored the next two goals, including a man-up tally at the 3:21 mark and Duddy found the back of the net with just 20 seconds left in the half to give the Griffins a 10-2 advantage at halftime.

The Wildcats struck first again in the third quarter, but the Griffins answered right back with an unassisted goal by Sam Slater at the 13:01 mark.  Wilmington outscored the Griffins 3-2 the rest of the quarter with both of CHC's goals coming from Jastrzebski, the last with just 47 seconds left, giving the Griffins a 13-6 lead heading into the final period.

Jastrzebski netted his fifth goal with 5:51 left in the game, making the score 14-8.  Wilmington followed with two more goals to pull within four, their closest margin since the first quarter, 14-10, with 4:18 left. Jones made two key saves down the stretch as the defense held their ground in the final minutes.  Hammon picked up a ground ball off a saved shot in the final minute and one-timed it past the Wilmington keeper for the Griffins final score for the game. 

Wilmington had an extra-man opportunity in the final minute which resulted in just one shot and a save and the Griffins controlled the ball for the final 27 seconds to secure the win.

The Griffins return to action on Saturday, April 15, 2023, when they travel to play the University of Bridgeport.  The first faceoff is set for 12:00 p.m.