RIVERDALE, N.Y. - Seniors Brett Miranda and Kelly Mahon, and sophomore Tyler Jarvis each netted two goals and the Manhattan men's lacrosse team held on to defeat Jacksonville 10-8 Saturday afternoon at Gaelic Park.
The first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference meeting between the two squads pitted two undefeated league foes against one another on a beautiful spring day in Riverdale, N.Y. For the Jaspers (3-8, 2-0 MAAC), beating the surging Dolphins (4-6, 2-1 MAAC) required a total team effort with five different players tallying goals and freshman goalkeeper Rich Akapnitis coming up big with 16 saves.
A contest which Manhattan led wire-to-wire, had several tense moments but in the end proved to be pure jubilation for the home squad. The Jaspers opened the scoring with two quick goals by Mahon and senior captain Mike Llewellyn.
With a man-up opportunity, Mahon took a pass from redshirt freshman attacker Brian McGrath and finished past Dolphins' goalkeeper Peter DeLuca, who made six saves, for the 1-0 advantage at the 11:49 mark of the first quarter.
30 seconds later, Llewellyn would record a score on an assist from sophomore midfielder Jon Crean to make it 2-0 Jaspers. Following a goal by Jacksonville's Jeremy Tissenbaum to cut the deficit to 2-1, Jarvis and senior attacker Justin Jensen went back-to-back to make it 4-1 Manhattan, with Jensen's score coming at the 13:59 ledger of the second quarter.
The Dolphins and Jaspers then traded a pair of goals in the final minutes to end the half with Manhattan leading 6-3. In the third quarter, the Jaspers would record the first three goals and then hold on for an exciting finish.
Jarvis got the action started in the third with an unassisted goal at the 12:30 mark to give Manhattan a 7-3 lead. Freshman attacker Brett Madarasz and McGrath would get the next two scores to build Manhattan's advantage to 9-3 with 5:23 remaining in the quarter.
Down but not out, the Dolphins came back to life, scoring the next four goals to cut it to 9-7 with 11:53 remaining in the final quarter but Miranda's tally at the 7:16 mark sealed the victory for the Kelly green and white.
Overall, Jacksonville led the way in shots (44-22) and ground balls (47-42), while Manhattan held advantages in clears (16-13) and extra-man opportunities (2-4/0-2).
The Jaspers look to keep up their winning ways when they take on No. 10 Hofstra in West Hempstead, N.Y. next Saturday at 7 p.m.