Box Score
RIVERDALE, N.Y. - A light Staten Island rain was enough to dampen the Manhattan women's lacrosse team, who fell 16-9 at Wagner on Wednesday afternoon. The Seahawks used a 4-0 run at the end of the first half to take a 9-5 lead into the locker room and never looked back.
Both teams traded goals through the first 11 minutes of the contest before senior attacker Chrissy Gutenberger scored two in a row to give the Jaspers a brief 4-3 lead. However, Wagner's Carolyn Clark evened the score back up on a free position shot with 15:01 remaining in the half.
Her teammate Michaela Galante then pushed the Seahawks in front before Donna Jo DiNorcia knotted things up at five a piece. At the 8:24 mark of the first half, Clare Kerrisk was given a yellow card putting Wagner a man-up and giving Clark a free position opportunity. She would not miss, as she scored five times to pace the Seahawks, and triggered a string of four straight goals forcing the Jaspers to trail 9-5 at halftime.
Out of the break, Gutenberger would attempt to take matters into her own hands scoring two of her five goals in the first 1:40 to bring Manhattan (1-2) back to within two. The Seahawks (1-3), went on another brief scoring frenzy netting three straight to push the advantage up to 12-7 with fewer than fifteen minutes to play in regulation.
The Jaspers would net two of the next three goals to get within 13-9, but Wagner scored three more times putting the game out of reach. Clark's five goals paced her team while Galante also earned five points with a hat trick and two assists. Manhattan was led by Gutenberger, who added a helper along with her five tallies, while getting goals from DiNorcia, Kerrisk, Domenica O'Brey, and Kelsey Rehain.
Freshman goalkeeper Christina Fiorinelli stopped 11 shots in the loss as the Jaspers were outshot 39-24 in the contest. Wagner's Shannon Sweeney came up with seven saves in her first victory of the season.
Amy Branchini led the way on defense with four ground balls while also causing a game-high five turnovers. As a team, Manhattan forced 18 turnovers while giving it up 19 times. They also picked up 19 ground balls compared to the 24 corralled by Wagner.
The Seahawks controlled possession and tempo by winning 19 of the 27 total draw controls while holding the Jaspers to 13-22 in their clear attempts and completing 12 of the 16 they attempted.
Manhattan will next be in action when they travel to Brooklyn, N.Y. to take on LIU on Sat., March 3 at noon. They will then return home to Gaelic Park the following day for a 1:00 p.m. date with Ivy League foe Brown.
To follow Manhattan Athletics on Twitter, go to twitter.com/GoJaspers or visit Manhattan's Facebook fan page.
