Cade Johnson scored three of his career-high five goals in the second half as the Chestnut Hill college Men's Lacrosse team held off a comeback effort from Georgian Court University to defeat the Lions 12-5 in the Central Atlantic Collegiate conference Tournament Semi-finals Wednesday night at victory field in Lafayette Hill.
 
The Griffins improve to 10-4 on the season and advance to Sunday's championship game.  Chestnut Hill will face top seed Wilmington University. The two teams will square off at Dominican University in Orangeburg, New York with the game starting at 11:00 a.m.  The Griffins are seeking their fourth consecutive title and have reached the conference championship game in each of the first six seasons that the tournament has been held.

Johnson's five goals led all scorers.  Jake Ballerini added a goal and three assists for four points.  Sam Slater and Noah Hammon had two goals apiece.  Nate Matthews tallied three assists.

Brandon Berghaier and Evan Farlow had five ground balls apiece for the Griffins while Will Duddy had two caused turnovers.  Julius Sorino had 16 saves in net for the Griffins and earned his tenth win of the season.

The Lions had cut a five goal deficit to three, 8-5 just five minutes into the third quarter and had the momentum swinging their way, getting six more shots on offense as the quarter progressed before Johnson took the wind out of their sails with a pair of goals just 65 seconds apart to give the Griffins a 10-5 lead with 2:44 left in the quarter.   Matthews had the assist on Johnson's first second half goal while Duddy had the assist on the second.

Tommy Austin made the score 11-5 with just under five minutes remaining in the game and Johnson tallied his fifth goal of the game with 1:50 left to round out the scoring.  Chestnut Hill's defense held the Lions to just three shots on goal and 11 total in the final period.

It was Johnson who started the scoring just 57 seconds into the game with an unassisted goal, spurring a 6-1 scoring run for the Griffins in the first quarter.  Hammon and Salter scored twice in the period and Johnson also added his second goal.  Ballerini assisted on three of the six scores while Matthews assisted on two.

Millan Webster scored three goals for the Lions and James Sanford tallied the other two.  Justin Iannarone had five ground balls.