Riverdale, NY - Manhattan opened the fourth quarter with three-straight goals en route to posting a hard-fought 11-10 victory over NJIT on Senior Day at Gaelic Park.
The Jaspers improve to 5-5 while the Highlanders fall to 1-10.
Senior Parker Giarratana (Delray Beach, FL / Boca Raton Community) and junior CJ Scharf (West Islip, NY / West Islip) each recorded hat tricks while adding an assist to pace Manhattan on offense.
Trailing 9-8 entering the final stanza, the Jaspers quickly tied the game up at 9-9 when freshman Tadhg O'Riordan (Tappan, NY / Tappan Zee) scored off a pass from sophomore Sean MacKinney (Bridgewater, NJ / Bridgewater-Raritan), with just over 14 minutes remaining. Manhattan would claim the lead for good at the 6:55 mark when junior Brandon Grinnell (Wakefield, MA / Wakefield Memorial) delivered an unassisted score, before MacKinney delivered what would prove to be the game-winning goal off a pass from Giarratana with less than three minutes to play.
The visitors would make things interesting as Joe Covino scored with 51 seconds to play to make it a one-score game. NJIT then won the ensuing faceoff, but following a timeout was denied when Ryan Darrow's shot attempt was blocked with 22 seconds remaining. Senior Dylan DeMuro (Yorktown Heights, NY / Stepinac) collected the ground ball and ran the clock to seal the win.
Sophomore Brendan Krebs (East Williston, NY / Chaminade) was outstanding between the pipes, making a career-high 21 saves, highlighted by turning away nine in the third period.
Riding the wave of Senior Day emotion, Manhattan came roaring out of the gates as Scharf and Giarratana each scored just over four minutes into the game in helping stake the Jaspers to a 4-1 lead after one period.
NJIT would hang around and scored four of the next five goals to tie it up at 5-5 at halftime, before taking a slim 9-8 advantage after three periods thanks to Collin Fogerty's goal with three seconds remaining in the stanza.
In the aforementioned pivotal fourth period, the defense aided the comeback win by forcing six turnovers.
The Highlanders were led by Colton Johnson's two goals on offense while Aaron Forster collected his 100th career score.
MacKinney had two goals and an assist while Grinnell added a goal and two assists to round out the multi-point performers for Manhattan.
Coach Kelleher On The Win
Here is the Happy JSN postgame recap with @DrewKelleher & the 10 Manhattan seniors!#ShareTheWin pic.twitter.com/JlQZA4Gazo
— Manhattan Lacrosse (@ManhattanMLAX) March 30, 2019
Notes
* Manhattan is now a perfect 5-0, all-time, against NJIT.
* Krebs' 21 stops were the most by a Jasper since Michael Zingaro made 21 saves in a 14-5 win over NJIT on April 2, 2016.
* Giarratana now has 97 career goals, 56 career assists and 153 career points.
* The Sunshine State native has also now registered 16 hat tricks.
* Manhattan denied NJIT on both extra-man opportunities and has been successful on killing off 86.4 percent of opponents power-play opportunities.
* O'Riordan and senior Robert Carroll (Grosse Pointe Park, MI / Grosse Pointe South) each had five ground balls.
* The Jaspers' five wins are the most since the 2014 season.
Up Next
* Manhattan returns to action at Detroit Mercy on Saturday, April 6 at 12:00 pm.