Box Score
RIVERDALE, N.Y. - Just three days after a disheartening shutout loss to Lehigh, the Manhattan men's lacrosse team scored five goals in the final period in a valiant 13-7 loss at 11th ranked Princeton on Tuesday night.
The Tigers would get on the board first, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first quarter, before Tyler Jarvis scored his first goal of the season 3:43 remaining in the period. Matt Thistle would then notch his first goal of the season a mere 52 seconds into the second quarter to get Manhattan (0-2) within one.
Princeton (2-0) would not allow the Jaspers to dream of an upset as they reeled off seven consecutive goals, outscoring Manhattan 4-0 in the third quarter to take a 10-2 advantage. Thistle would help get his team back on the board delivering a nice feed to Brian McGrath on a man-up opportunity with 14:31 left in the fourth quarter.
After two straight goals by the Tigers, Thistle would tally two more helpers on goals by Brendan Rogers and McGrath to cut the Princeton lead to 12-5. Manhattan would score two of the next three goals as McGrath, who earned his first hat trick of the year, and Thistle scored within six seconds of each other.
Thistle led all players in the game scoring six points (four assists and two goals) while Jon Crean earned an assist on Thistle's final goal of the game. Crean picked up four ground balls for the Jaspers while winning two of the five face-offs he took. Brian Lenskold also made an impact at the face-off X winning 6-of-18 as Manhattan went 8-23 in that category.
The Tigers were paced by Tom Schreiber who had four goals and one assist. Six other players had multi-point efforts as Princeton outshot Manhattan 44-28 while picking up 42 groundballs and forcing 17 turnovers. The Jaspers were able to move the ball around quite a bit successfully clearing the ball on 20 of their 24 attempts while the Tigers were 18-21 on their attempts. Both teams earned one goal on the "man-up" opportunity (Manhattan 1-3 and Princeton 1-5).
Freshman Michael Wiatrak made his first career start in goal and game away with 15 saves in his debut. Princeton's Eric Sanschagrin made 11 saves in his 53 minutes in net before being replaced by Brian Kavanagh who allowed two goals in his 6:33 of play.
The Jaspers will next be in action on Sat., March 3 when they host Providence at 2:00 p.m. at Gaelic Park.
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