Eighth time’s the charm.

It’s a statement that Bryan Brazill, Merrimack’s offensive coordinator, made in jest last weekend after the Warriors’ 10-5 win in the NCAA Division II men’s lacrosse quarterfinals — but with good reason. It came against Le Moyne, which has defeated Merrimack seven consecutive times prior and ended the Warriors’ season in the national semifinals the last two seasons.

Merrimack’s Achilles’ heel had been conquered.

“The losses were in the back of everyone's mind going into the game, but it was an ‘enough is enough’ kind of thing,” said Tom McLaughlin, a fifth-year defenseman and two-time All-American. “We knew we could beat them. We just finally stopped caring about the name on their jersey. You can't be intimidated by that just because they've had success in the past.”

With the win, the Warriors now will take on Adelphi in the NCAA semifinals Saturday, but their course to this point hasn’t exactly been straightforward. Rather, they endured several program-defining moments that has placed the North Andover, Mass., team within 60 minutes of a berth in the national title game Memorial Day weekend in nearby Foxborough.

The first, Merrimack coach Mike Morgan said, came back in the fall and widely was dubbed a “punishment run.” Morgan didn’t go into detail, but after some disciplinary issues, the team ran sprints for an hour and a half straight.

“That run in the fall is definitely something that I won't forget,” said freshman attackman Charlie Bertrand, Merrimack’s leading scorer with 68 points (47 goals, 21 assists). “It was early in the year, so right away I realized there's no messing around. We're here to compete, so there's no goofing around off the field.”

That mentality paid dividends come February, as Merrimack charged out to a 5-1 record, its only loss coming in double overtime against Le Moyne. Then came an April 1 clash at Adelphi, one in which Morgan said the Warriors came out flat in a hostile environment.

“We just didn't get off the bus,” he said. “It was one of those games where they came out with a lot of emotion, a lot of passion, and I think we didn't match that early. They got a lead, and we were playing catch up the rest of the way.”

But then a switch went on, Bertrand said, and Merrimack realized it couldn’t just show up, reliant on skill alone. Rather, it adopted a mindset of, “We were going to not only out-lacrosse you, we were going to have to outwork you,” Morgan said.

That approach yielded another impressive stretch. Merrimack rattled off five consecutive wins, setting up an April 23 bout against Limestone, then the nation’s No. 1 team and the 2016 NCAA runner-up., in Gambrills, Md. The result? A commanding 18-13 win, one which faceoff specialist Blake Boudreau said revealed the group’s true potential.

“You always talk about winning a national championship and beating the best in the country, but we never achieved that second part until we beat Limestone,” Boudreau said. “For me, that really showed we can play with anyone in the country, and we did that by coming together.”

Then came a brief spell at No. 1 in the national polls, but Morgan was quick to point out such a mark wasn’t the product of a star player, of which Merrimack has a handful. Rather, it’s been a collective effort as led by their eight seniors and McLaughlin.

On attack, Merrimack has of late trotted out Max Allen, Michael O'Connell and Bertrand. The latter two are underclassmen. Allen is a two-time All-American. Collectively, they’ve amassed 118 points.

Perhaps the Warriors’ biggest strength, though, lies in midfield, a position where they boast five players who have surpassed the 20-point mark. For opponents, it’s a pick-your-poison approach, all the product of Tim Towler, Kyle Stenberg, Seamus Ford, John Bassett and Dom Thomas.

Then there’s Boudreau operating at nearly a 65-percent clip from the faceoff X, and Edward Hillier in goal with a 56.3 save percentage and a defense that allows just 7.53 goals per game.

“Offensively, when that ball's spinning and the guys are trusting each other and moving the ball, we're a pretty good offense,” Morgan said. “Same thing defensively. When the guys are pressing out on the hands and supporting the slide, we're a pretty good defense. That, along with experience, is what defines us.”

The last layer, McLaughlin said, is that Merrimack is battled tested in the Northeast-10, a conference that at one point this year had eight teams ranked in the top 20 and accounted for all four teams in the North region of the NCAA tournament bracket. He added that the rigorous schedule often mimics the level of playoff lacrosse, a fact that will only help the Warriors come this weekend.

Merrimack will travel to Adelphi’s home field in Garden City, N.Y., looking to book a spot in the Division II final on Memorial Day weekend at Gillette Stadium. That’s practically the Warriors’ backyard, but Morgan stressed that his squad isn’t looking that far ahead.

Their motivating factor instead? Revenge.

“The Le Moyne game was a great win, but the mission is not accomplished,” Morgan said. “You get confidence from it, but beating Le Moyne doesn't give us a 3-0 lead when we start against Adelphi. If you're happy with that throughout the week, then you're losing focus on the big picture.”

And, as mentioned above, Merrimack’s bigger picture is the byproduct of incremental steps. The “punishment run” back in the fall, the early season loss to Adelphi, the statement win over Limestone and getting the best of Le Moyne at long last all proved critical.

But McLaughlin, one of three captains, is hesitant to use the words “special” to define this 2017 group. There’s still unfinished business.

“It's all about being No. 1 Memorial Day weekend and holding the trophy above your head,” McLaughlin said. “You could be ranked No. 1 all year and then lose in the playoffs, and it doesn't really mean anything then. We have to make it count.”