Hamden, Conn. (March 8, 2006)--With Manhattan Men's Lacrosse holding a 7-3 lead over Quinnipiac in the second half, the trailing Bobcats stole one out of the Jaspers' early season playbook. After Manhattan had pieced together fourth quarter rallies to win their last two contests, the Jaspers fell victim to a second-half comeback this afternoon. Quinnipiac scored seven times in the final 24 minutes of play to win 10-8 in Hamden, Conn.
After senior Greg Lewis completed his first hat trick of the season by scoring off of a feed from junior Brian Murray in a man-up situation with 9:23 remaining in the third period, Quinnipiac rattled off five straight goals to take an 8-7 advantage into the final quarter. Less than two minutes into the fourth period, however, another pair of Manhattan juniors connected. Rob Sitar found Jeremy Marrano who then found the back of the net to halt the Bobcat run and knot the game up at eight.
The Jaspers, however, could not find anymore offense down the stretch, and Quinnipiac netted two more even strength goals to secure the comeback victory. Josh Murray's goal with 8:28 left of the clock proved to be the game-winner, but it was Quinnipiac's Sean McBride who did the most damage to the Jaspers by putting four balls past Manhattan freshman keeper John Geagan. Despite making 20 saves, Geagan was hit with his first collegiate loss. The freshman won his only other start of the season, a 5-4 decision at Air Force.
Manhattan's top two scorers so far this season, Lewis and Murray, continued that trend again today as they helped the Jaspers jump out to a 7-3 advantage. On his way to a hat trick of his own, Murray netted the first two Manhattan goals in the first quarter. Lewis opened the second quarter scoring with an unassisted tally to give Manhattan a 3-1 lead with 11:05 to play until half-time.
Sophomore Corey Dolik, who leads the team in groundballs, scooped up six loose balls to pace the Jaspers in that category. Sophomore Shawn Gorinson, who was 9-19 on face-offs, picked up five groundballs on the afternoon.
Manhattan attempts to rebound from the loss at Rutgers University in Piscataway, N.J. on Tuesday, March 14. Face-off is 3:00 p.m.