Noah Hammon scored three times and Austin Jones had a spectacular game in goal as the Chestnut Hill College Men's lacrosse team punched their ticket to the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Championship game with a 12-8 win over Wilmington University Friday afternoon at Lamoy Field in Waterbury, Connecticut.

Chestnut Hill will now play in the conference championship game for the fifth straight season dating back to 2018 (no tournament in 2020 due to COVID).  The Griffins, the two-time defending champions, will face top seed Georgian Court University on Sunday.  

Hammon led all scorers with three goals and one assist.  Jones kept the Griffins in the contest making a season-high 20 saves while allowing just one goal above his season average of seven as the Griffins improve to 10-4 on the season.

The Griffins never trailed in the contest, scoring their first goal just 99 seconds into the game and adding a second less than a minute later.  Defender Dan Grubb caused a turnover in Wilmington's end of the field and quickly converted it into a goal, his first of the season for a 1-0 CHC lead.  Chestnut Hill won the ensuing faceoff and Hammon scored on the possession at the 12:26 mark to add to the lead.

After a Wildcat goal, Grubb added his second goal of the game at the 9:04 mark to make the score 3-1.  Wilmington came back and tied the game at 3-3 (the first of two ties) with just a second left in the first quarter.

In the early minutes of the second quarter Cade Johnson made sure the game didn't stay tied for long taking a pass from Sam Slater (1 goal, three assists) for the go-ahead score on their first possession after winning the faceoff to start the period.

The Wildcats again tied the game on a wild score as WU's Matt Kracyla took a long shot that found the back of an open net as Jones was outside the crease early in the third quarter.
CHC's Zach Schultz (12-23 on faceoffs) won the subsequent faceoff, and the Griffins retook the lead at the 11:08 mark (62 seconds after the Wildcats tied the game) with the Slater to Johnson combo striking again for a 5-4 lead.

Mike Smith gave the Griffins a 6-4 lead before the Wildcats struck again to pull within one 6-5.  CHC then began to build momentum, scoring three straight goals to push their lead to its biggest margin at 9-5.  Hammon had two of the three goals, the last with 32 seconds left while Smith tallied his second of the game, this one while a man-up and on a pass from Hammon at the 3:14 mark.   Wilmington's TJ Caton (the CACC player of the Year) scored with just 19 seconds left to cut the Griffins leads to three 9-6.

This would be as close as the Wildcats would get as the Griffins answered each time the Wildcats put a shot past Jones.  Jack Clyne opened the scoring in the fourth quarter with Will Duddy getting the assist at the 8:32 mark.  Duddy then scored at the 6:51 mark and Slater put the icing on the cake with a goal at the 3:18 mark, rounding out the scoring as the Griffins secured the 12-8 win.

Grubb led the Griffins with two caused turnovers.  Ten different players had at least two ground balls with Schultz grabbing four of the team's total of 30.  Chase Snyder and Clyne also had three ground balls apiece.  

The CACC Championship game will take place on Sunday at Lamoy Field at 11:00 a.m.  Chestnut Hill will face Georgian Court for the third time in the championship game.  GCU won the first two meetings in 2018 (7-9) and 2019 (10-11).