Loudonville, N.Y. (April 22, 2006)--Despite having a huge advantage in shot attempts, Manhattan Men's Lacrosse had not scored in almost 20 minutes. At one point it had to seem that the Jaspers were shooting at a floating net as less than half of Manhattan's shots found their way on goal. Any mounting frustrations, however, were quickly erased when the team's leading point scorer
Brian Murray stepped up and buried a shot into the back of the net with less than three minutes remaining in the contest to propel the Jaspers to an 8-7 MAAC road victory over Siena on Saturday afternoon.
Murray's goal was one of only 18 of Manhattan's 38 shots on the day that made it on net. The junior attackman, who also dished out an assist earlier in the game, netted his 13th goal of the season to break a 7-7 tie with just 2:41 remaining on the clock. Murray's tally was Manhattan's first since the 6:52 mark of the third quarter, as Siena was responsible for the four scores prior to game-winner. Trailing 7-3 after Manhattan junior
Chris Oppito converted a man-up opportunity, four different Siena players took their turns at contributing to the Saints' comeback effort. With 3:12 to play in the game, Chris Zarin capped off Siena's comeback with the equalizer, but the Saints' jubilation was short lived as Murray answered a half of minute later.
Manhattan's shot on goal percentage was lacking in efficiency, but not the Japsers' power play. Manhattan converted on two of its three man-up opportunities with both goals coming from Oppito. On the other hand, Siena scored a man-up goal early on, but failed on all three of its second-half chances, going 1-5 on the afternoon.
Jasper freshman
Angelo Marrano opened the game's scoring when he notched an unassisted tally 4:08 into the contest. Siena scored the next three of the next four goals to build a slim 3-2 advantage midway through the second quarter. With 5:38 remaining before halftime, however, Marrano struck again to even the score and spark a run of five consecutive Manhattan goals. Less than one minute after Marrano's equalizer, Angelo's older brother Jeremy joined the act by taking a pass from Murray and burying in past Siena goalie David Jalette to give the Jaspers' their first lead since the 8:54 mark of the first period.
Angelo Marrano added one more before the break for the hat trick and a 5-3 Jasper edge.
Manhattan sophomore Michael Wilcox was the first player to find the back of the net in the second half as he connected on his first goal of the season 7:40 into the third period.
With the victory, the Jaspers improve to 4-7 overall and 2-4 in MAAC play, while Siena drops to 3-9 overall and 2-4 in the conference. Manhattan closes out the regular season with two games this upcoming week. On April 26, Manhattan hosts Wagner in a Wednesday matinee. Then, on Saturday at Gaelic Park, Manhattan squares off against VMI on Family Day.
