Manhattan University Athletics

Staten Island, N.Y. (April 18, 2007)?Sophomores Angelo Marrano and Marc LaBelle provided Manhattan Men's Lacrosse with all the offense it needed on Wednesday afternoon.  The pair of second-year Jaspers combined for seven goals in their team's 16-5 thumping of conference opponent Wagner College.

Marrano led Manhattan by netting four goals to set a new career high.  Labelle, who now has 13 goals on the year, added three scores for his first hat trick of 2007.

The winless Seahawks (0-12, 0-5 MAAC) did little to prevent Manhattan (6-6, 3-2 MAAC) from picking up its second straight conference win, and third overall.

The Jaspers scored 14 of the game's 15 goals to enjoy a 14-1 advantage after three quarters of play.  Wagner's final four tallies all came in the last period after Manhattan sophomore goalie John Geagan's day was already done.

Geagan made nine saves to earn the win, while his counterpart Ian Gallagher stopped 22 of the Jaspers' 44 shots.  Freshman goalie Michael Reynolds came onto spell Geagan in the fourth quarter and recorded four saves in preserving the victory.

Neither team found the back of the net during the game's first nine minutes.  Jasper senior co-captain Chris Oppito, who finished with two goals, opened the scoring with 5:59 remaining in the opening period.  Fellow senior Christian Schaefers doubled the Jasper lead 1:57 later when he scored off a Matt Ryan's pass.

With Manhattan ahead 2-0, LaBelle opened the second quarter scoring with his first goal of the day only 1:04 into the frame.  Ryan, who scored twice on the day, beat Gallagher 33 seconds later to increase the Jasper advantage to 4-0 at the 13:23 mark.

Marrano's first goal of the contest made the score 5-0 with 12:14 remaining in the first half.

Josh Hamilton put Wagner on the board at the 8:51 mark of the second quarter.

Oppito responded to Hamilton's tally by with a short-handed goal, and Marrano added another one to allow Manhattan to take a 7-1 lead into the locker room.

Senior Brian Murray, Manhattan's leading scorer, was one of five Jaspers to post a multi-goal effort as he finished with two.

Seniors Rob Sitar and Jeremy Marrano also scored in the winning effort.