Box Score
RIVERDALE, N.Y. - The Manhattan men's lacrosse team unleashed their biggest offensive flurry of the season with 58 shots en route to a 20-5 victory over Wagner on Tuesday night. The win was the fourth in five games for the Jaspers, who move back to five hundred on the year at 5-5 (1-1 in MAAC).
Manhattan jumped out to an early 7-1 lead after the first quarter, scoring six a round at one point, before going into halftime leading 10-2. Junior Tyler Jarvis had three of his game high five goals in the first quarter including two in a row on assists from Brendan Rogers and Paul Moreau.
The Jaspers offense benefited from crisp ball movement and smart passes as they had 13 assists as a team, lead by Rogers' career high six helpers. Rogers also added a goal for his best performance of the year with a season high seven points.
Wagner's only offense in the first half came from William Hedges, and a man-up goal from Mike Hurley in to begin the second quarter. The Seahawks (0-10, 0-1 NEC) were held scoreless for 19:51 minutes of game time between the first and second quarters. They would again be stifled for a total of 17:55 minutes before scoring their third goal on Nick DePhillips' man-up goal in the third. Hurley paced Wagner with two goals on the game.
Meanwhile, the Jasper assault continued with 11 different players scoring goals. Sophomore Taylor Bethea recorded his first two collegiate goals in the first half, one in the midst of a scrum in front of the net. To begin the third quarter, Manhattan scored three in a row coming off the sticks of Jonathan Bourne, Ryan Payton and Rogers.
After trading pairs of goals, Manhattan would score the final five tallies of the game, two on the EMO, for their largest point total since scoring 22 in a win over VMI (03/24/2007). The Jaspers defense was also stellar forcing 24 Wagner turnovers and holding the Seahawks to just 9-16 on clear attempts.
Manhattan picked up 35 ground balls as compared to Wagner's 28 and was 13-14 in clear attempts while winning 15-27 face-offs. The Jaspers were also 5-7 on extra-man opportunities while Wagner was just 2-6 on the EMO. Freshman Brian Lenskold won 13 of 23 face-offs he took while also picking up four ground balls. Jon Crean was 2-4 in his face-off battles and led all players with six ground balls.
As the Jaspers began to empty their bench, Greg Smith was able to dodge away from a defender and score the first goal of his collegiate career on a man-up opportunity with 2:43 remaining. Manhattan also saw goals from Brian McGrath, Andrew Hurst, Brett Madarasz, and Tyler Sabens. Payton (4), McGrath (2) each had multi-goal games.
In net, freshman Michael Wiatrak (2-2) made the fourth start of his young career and picked up the win making six saves. He was later relieved for William Murphy who played the final 10 minutes in his first bit of action between the pipes this season.
The Jaspers will wrap up their season long three game home stand on Sat., April 7, when they host Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference foe VMI at 1 p.m. on Gaelic Park. At halftime, Manhattan will honor the 10th anniversary of their 2002 MAAC Championship team that went 9-0 in conference play.
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