Sebastian, Fla. (March 18, 2006)-After Marist, the top selection in the MAAC Men's Lacrosse Pre-season Poll, scored five times in the opening half to take a 5-3 advantage over Manhattan into half-time of this weekend's conference opener, the Jasper defense silenced the Marist attack for the first 28 minutes of the second half. With the game knotted at five in the waning minutes, however, Marist's Andrew Walsh was able to speak up as he found the back of the net on an unassisted goal to down the Jaspers 6-5 in a game played in Florida.
The Walsh game-winner erased a stellar second-half performance by the Manhattan defense, which was anchored by Pre-season All-MAAC selection Pat Farrelly and sophomore
Corey Dolik. Dolik tallied seven groundballs on the night. Despite allowing a last-minute score, freshman goalie
John Geagan closed the door on Marist for much of the second half, as the two-time MAAC Rookie of the Week made 16 stops in all.
The Manhattan attack did not exactly light up the scoreboard in the second half, but with the help of
Greg Lewis and
Kevin Dorsey the Jaspers managed to expunge a two-goal half-time deficit with two third quarter goals. First, Lewis took a pass from junior
Brian Murray, who has been one of the team's most consistent scorers so far this season, and put it past the Marist keeper. Then, Dorsey tallied the equalizer just minutes later to make it a brand new ballgame.
After Marist regained its advantage with under two minutes to play in regulation, Manhattan produced an offensive flurry in which several Jasper attempts went wide of the net, and the game ended in the with the ball lying near the crease in the offensive end.
Manhattan makes it second attempt at grabbing a MAAC victory when the Jaspers travel to Mt. St. Mary's on Saturday, March 25.
