The Fighting Scots men's lacrosse team heads to Minnesota on Saturday for a Midwest Lacrosse Conference championship tilt against Northwestern Minnesota. The 4 p.m. game features the top two seeds from the MLC tournament and the winner takes the conference's NCAA tournament automatic bid. The NCAA Selection Show is set for Sunday at 9 p.m. ET on NCAA.com.

How They Got Here

The Scots made it to Saturday's championship game by beating Cornell College 14-6 Wednesday night in the semifinals. The Scots scored nine goals in the first quarter, all unanswered to take control. They finished the game on a 5-0 run as well. Kain Donohoo (St. Charles,Illinois) and Jeff Knapp (Nolensville, Tennessee) both scored four goals and added two assists. 

The Eagles made it to the title game as the #1 seed thanks to a bye. When Northland ended their season it left just three teams in the playoffs and UNW advanced to the title game as regular season champions. 

About the Matchup

These teams met twice this season with the Eagles winning in Monmouth 16-4 and at home 20-9. Monmouth is 0-6 all-time against UNW with three losses in both locations. They first met in 2017, a 6-5 2 OT win for the Eagles at April Zorn Stadium. The 2018 contest was a 9-8 win in St. Paul for the Eagles and the won in Minnesota 10-8 in 2019. Last year the Scots hosted UNW for a 12-8 loss before the season was cut short. 

In the first loss this season the Scots got two goals from Knapp and one each from Michael Casey (Chicago, Illinois) and Jack Koenn (Dexter, Michigan). Last Saturday in St. Paul, Knapp led the Scots with three goals while Donohoo had two. Overall Monmouth had six goal scorers in the 11-goal setback. 

The Eagles have MLC Offensive Player of the Year Chase Marlenee who scored 10 goals against the Scots this season, with six coming at April Zorn. Mat Anderson netted 13 times in the two games, including eight goals last Saturday. 

The teams combined for 14 of the 17 players on the MLC First Team and swept all the individual honors. Monmouth's Nick Thomas (Elmhurst, Illinois) won the Defensive Player of the Year while UNW's Brenden Schuffenhauer won Rookie of the Year and Travis Sanders won Coach of the Year. Monmouth's Teagan Simons (Littleton, Colorado) was the only goalkeeper named to the First Team with UNW's Christoph Tisdale named to the Second Team. 

They Said It

"They are a really good team and I thought we played better against them last time than we did at home," said coach Chris Klaiber. "We are going to try to turn the tide against them Saturday. This is the playoffs and anything can happen. All we wanted was an opportunity and now we have it."

"They have beaten us twice this year but we are gonna take it to them and give it our all," said Thomas. 

"We are looking forward to getting another shot at them after a couple days of practice," said Donohoo. "We have to go out there and take it to them."