PHILADELPHIA -- To truly stand out in the history of the Robert Morris men's lacrosse team, the 2018 squad would have to do something that even the regular-season Northeast Conference champions of 2012 could not: win a postseason game. On Thursday afternoon, RMU emphatically earned the right to play another postseason game, with even greater implications for the program.

With efficient offense, patient defense and resilient goaltending, the third-seeded Colonials (11-4) unseated defending champ Bryant (8-7), the No. 2 seed, with a decisive 12-5 win in their NEC Tournament Semifinal at Sweeney Field on the campus of Saint Joseph's University. Having captured its first NEC Tournament victory since 2013, Robert Morris will meet the host Hawks in its first NEC Tournament Championship game since that year Saturday at 12:00 p.m. EDT.

"Across the board, we just thought it was an effort on all fronts. From Alex on the back end, to our defense, all the way up to just being an efficient offense, which we really focused on," said head coach Andrew McMinn. "We're extremely proud of the effort from the guys, just coming out here and executing at the level that we did."

Redshirt junior attackman Jimmy Perkins continued peaking at the right time with his fourth hat trick in five games and a game-high four points, while fellow junior and all-conference honoree Alex Heger dazzled with 15 saves, helping the RMU defense blank the Bulldogs for nearly 25 minutes at one point and holding them to one score over the final 34.

"It feels incredible. I've always wanted to beat these guys," Heger said.

The Colonials, as a team, took command at both ends to match their record for single-season wins established by the 2012 group, and to defeat Bryant for the first time since then. Previously, the Bulldogs had handed them a 10-7 loss at Joe Walton Stadium Mar. 30 and ended their season with a 12-3 decision May 4, 2017 in last year's tournament.

Perkins also grabbed a record of his own with his 27th assist of the season on an early go-ahead goal by Matt Schmidt, claiming the Robert Morris single-year mark originally set by Kyle Buchanan in 2012.

"From the beginning of the year, this was our goal. We set out to put ourselves in position to win the championship, and especially to get over the hump this week and beat a quality team like that," he said. "It feels good, so, on to business as usual on Saturday, and I'm already looking forward to it."

The first of the 22 shots by the Colonials ominously found the back of the net just 1:48 into the game. Tyson Gibson got his 18th goal of the season on a leaping laser from beyond the circle to extend his team-high point streak to 19 games, dating back to Apr. 18, 2017, and he would finish with three points.

After Bryant tied things up on a man-up goal by Marc O'Rourke with 9:03 remaining in the first quarter, Schmidt responded from the left elbow at even strength less than four minutes later for his team-leading 31st. He now has a goal in 14 straight outings.

The award-winning rookie would tally twice more for Bryant before the day was over, but he alone was no match for an RMU defense that saw the Bulldogs commit 20 turnovers. The Colonials lowered their team goals-against average to 7.73, fourth-lowest in Division I through Thursday, and Heger stopped five of Bryant's 12 shots in the opening frame.

"I've basically just been working on my patience--not getting too jammed up before a shot is taken, staying calm in the goal," Heger explained. "Whenever I'm getting beaten, I'm typically beating myself. We just tried to shut them down from the inside, and let them shoot from the outside."

"Unbelievable effort from all those guys," McMinn marveled. "[Assistant] Coach [Rob] Marasti prepares guys on that side of the ball so well for each opponent that we go against, and, obviously, that showed up today. A big part of that was dictating, in their possessions, that they couldn't score early on, and, again, the guys executed across the board."

Meanwhile, what has become a perfunctory wraparound goal by Perkins, giving him 24 on the season, gave Bobby Mo the lead for good at 3-2 with 1:44 left in the period.

Freshman Jake Boudreau registered his first collegiate assist on Brad McCulley's first goal of the game with 10:18 left in the first half, which doubled that RMU lead. Perkins made it a 5-2 advantage 2:15 later when he outraced two defenders to salvage an errant pass behind the net, then raced out in front to throw it past Kevin Beimfohr from close range.

The Quaker Valley High School product completed his HT with a flourish, faking out a man and weaving toward goal to put Robert Morris up by three with under five minutes to play in the second quarter.

"Nothing much has changed throughout the year. You've just got to have that consistent confidence and trust in your matchups going into the game," said Perkins. "My teammates have been doing good things to get me in the right positions so I've just got to bury my chances. I'm making the most of my opportunities."

McCulley, though, delivered perhaps the real back-breaker with a cheeky backhander after the teams bided their time through six scoreless minutes in the third quarter. The sophomore danced around traffic and dribbled the ball past Beimfohr, making it 7-4 RMU and achieving his first-ever multi-goal game with the rug-burner from above the circle.

A senior member of the midfield, Carter Yepsen, also scored a thing of beauty with just over three-and-a-half minutes to go in the third, getting a defender to bite hard on a clever head fake and burying an easy goal from close range. Fellow senior Mitchell Wales, off a Heger save, scored in transition for his first goal since Mar. 24 to send Robert Morris on its way with 1:16 left.

"We entirely changed our approach to their zone defense," McMinn explained. "We came up with a few different wrinkles we felt could give some trouble to them, and that's exactly what the guys capitalized on. For them to take a new plan, go out there and run it as efficiently as we did--again, hat's off to those guys."

In the fourth quarter, RMU's 2017 and 2018 All-NEC Rookie Team selections hooked up, with Ryan Smith sneaking in a Corson Kealey feed at the side of the net for his 14th of the year. Kealey would get his 15th on a one-timer just 49 seconds later, and Gibson provided the final margin with 4:43 to play.

Heger has been in goal for every Robert Morris victory in 2018, giving him 23 all-time and putting him one shy of equaling the school's career record, held by Charles Ruppert '13. In front of him, NEC Defensive Player of the Year Zachary Bryant surpassed 100 career ground balls, leading the Colonials with four, and notched his conference-leading 35th caused turnover of the campaign.

Junior long stick midfielder Jack Toomb now has sole possession of fourth place on the program's all-time GB list with 157, and defenseman Will Ewing, another of ten different RMU players with a caused turnover Thursday, scooped up a pair.

Robert Morris will look to avenge an 8-7 loss to St. Joseph's Apr. 28 that gave the Hawks the regular-season crown. Its last meeting with SJU at Sweeney Field resulted in a come-from-behind 13-7 win for the Colonials Apr. 1, 2017.

"It's been a few years, but, like we always talk about, our focus is always just on taking care of what opportunity we have here," McMinn said. "The past is the past, but we're just going to make sure we play the best 60 minutes we're capable of, and execute at the highest level possible."

"We're definitely not done yet, but we've already had a couple alumni reach out and wish us luck," Perkins added. "They know what's at stake, and we want to be the first team that accomplishes that. A lot of guys have paved the way for us, we respect the hell out of all those guys and thank them for their work.

"It's our time to get it done, for all those guys."

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