RIVERDALE, N.Y. – Manhattan men's lacrosse returns to action on Saturday at VMI—the Jaspers and Keydets faceoff at noon on ESPN+.
The Jaspers have won back-to-back meetings with the Keydets. Both of those meetings came in Riverdale. VMI has won the last two meetings in Lexington.
Manhattan (7-3, 4-1 MAAC) is coming off its first loss in MAAC play last Saturday against Marist, 10-9. The Jaspers trailed 10-5 before coming back to make it 10-9 with four goals over the final nine minutes.
Kelly DuPree had a hat trick for the second time this season.
Dan MacKinney tallied five points, and
Kyle Gucwa added four.
VMI (5-6, 2-3 MAAC) is coming off an 11-10 overtime win over Canisius last week in Buffalo. Hartley Jordan scored the game-winning goal in overtime. Wil Duffy had three goals for the Keydets. Luke Rusterucci paces the VMI offense with 22 goals and 20 assists for 42 points. Adam Norris has started all 11 games for VMI in goal. The freshman owns a .502 save percentage and a 13.33 GAA.
Despite allowing 10 goals on Saturday to Marist, Manhattan is the best team in the MAAC and second nationally in scoring defense at 8.10. The Jaspers also lead the MAAC in man-down defense and sit third nationally at .815.
Joseph Persico leads the MAAC and Division I in goals against average (8.11). The graduate student also leads the conference in save percentage (.578). That mark is second nationally.
Offensively, Gucwa is fourth in the MAAC in points per game (3.60) and third in assists per game (1.70).
Gucwa extended his point streak to 40 games with his four on Saturday. The senior's streak is the sixth-longest in the nation and encompasses every game of his Jasper career sans his first one.
Liam McDonough has won .543 percent of his faceoffs, third in the MAAC. The first-year Jasper is third in the MAAC in groundballs per game (5.70).
Scott O'Connor has scored in five straight games for the Jaspers.
Christian Lyons has a point in eight straight contests.
Hunter Newman has picked up at least three groundballs in three straight games.
For the latest on the Manhattan College men's lacrosse program, follow the Jaspers on Twitter @ManhattanMLAX and Instagram @Manhattan_Lacrosse.
