RIVERDALE, N.Y. – The Manhattan men's lacrosse team entered Saturday's contest with defending league champion Canisius in desperate need of a league win. A back and forth affair would ultimately go the Golden Griffins, defeating the Jaspers 8-6 in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC) play. The loss was the fourth in five games for Manhattan while Canisius snapped a three game skid.
A low scoring contest got started as Brandon Bull put the Griffins (2-8, 2-2 MAAC) on top at the 13:34 mark of the first quarter. Manhattan quickly responded though as Patrick Hodapp wrapped around the cage and beat Alex Govenettio for the equalizer three minutes later. From there, both defenses held strong before Canisius' Tim Edwards broke the deadlock with under four minutes remaining in the period.
The Jaspers (3-10, 0-4 MAAC) tied things up again just thirty-two seconds into the second quarter as Tyler Jarvis fed Ryan Payton for the first of his three assists. Less than two minutes after, Canisius' leading scorer Vince Gravino gave his squad another one goal advantage. He would unfortunately be ejected from the game one minute later for an unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, giving Manhattan a three minute extra-man opportunity. The Jaspers would be unable to score in that time as the Griffins defense forced numerous shots wide of the cage.
They would be find another equalizer at the 6:13 mark when Marcel Godino came streaking down the right side of the field. Jarvis found him on the run and the junior one-timed a shot to the upper right corner, knotting the game up at 3-3. Godino then helped Manhattan take the lead, dumping a pass off to Hodapp who finished a point-blank shot to the left of the net with 2:33 remaining in the half. Despite playing solid defense, they could not hold off Canisius who tied things up when Billy Jacobbi passed from behind the cage to a leaping Edwards who beat Rich Akapnitis sending the game into halftime tied at 4-4.
The third quarter saw a total of 14 shots be taken by the two teams but only one actually found the net. With time winding down in the frame, Godino notched his second tally of the contest with 1:17 remaining to put Manhattan up by one. Canisius responded however in the fourth, outscoring the Jaspers 4-1 in the period.
It began when Joe Rautenstrauch spun away from the defense and rifled a shot past Akapnitis with 14:12 to play in regulation. That tied things up at 5-5 before Austin Romantic gave the Griffins another lead just over two minutes after that. With under nine minutes to play, Jarvis got his third assist of the game as he passed to Andrew Hurst in the middle of the field. Hurst was able to beat Govenettio with a bouncing shot at the 8:05 mark to knot the score up at six apiece.
Canisius then used their second string of consecutive goals to break the tie, and some strong defense, to hold off the Jaspers. Rautenstrauch earned his second goal of the game as he fired a shot from the right side while falling down to break the tie with exactly five minutes to play. Bull then pushed the game out of reach with a goal at the 3:32 mark, providing the ultimate decision.
Both Edwards and Rautenstrauch had two goals to pace the Griffins while Manhattan was led by Godino's two goals and one assist along with Jarvis' three assists. Akapnitis made eight saves in net for the Jaspers while Govenettio stopped six shots for Canisius. The Griffins outshot Manhattan 32-25, including 10-3 in the fourth, while also picking up 33 ground balls to the Jaspers' 26. Mike Moran was a key player for Canisius winning 12-of-16 face-offs, helping to keep possession throughout.
The Jaspers will now go on the road for their final contest away from Gaelic Park. They travel to Lexington, Va., on Sat., April 20 to take on the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) Keydets.