Kingston, NY (April 2, 2005)- Senior
Eugene Tanner scored three goals to lead the way for the Jaspers as they defeated Marist 11-10 at Dietz Stadium tonight. The win is Manhattan's second in a row in MAAC play as the team improves to 2-0 in the conference.
The Jaspers jumped out to a 4-0 in the first quarter as Tanner started the scoring with an unassisted tally at the 13:36 mark, followed by an unassisted tally by junior
Greg Lewis 14 seconds later. Sophomore
Rob Sitar then scored his first goal of the season just 46 seconds later on a feed from sophomore
Brian Murray to make the score 3-0.
After Tanner scored his second goal of the night, Marist came back with two man-up goals to cut the lead in half. But with 20 seconds left in the quarter, Tanner completed the first-quarter hat trick on a feed from sophomore
Chris Oppito to give Manhattan a 5-2 lead after 15 minutes.
The second quarter saw even more scoring as each team had four goals. Sophomore
Jeremy Marrano got things started with a goal on a feed from classmate
Christian Schaefers. After senior
Justin Otto made it 7-2, Marist's Bill Duerr scored two of Marist's next three goals, sandwiched around a
Sean Crowley goal to cut Manhattan's lead to 8-5. After Oppito scored with 1:21 remaining in the half, Marist's Tim Iuculano scored a man-up goal with 41 seconds to cut the Jaspers' lead to 9-6 at intermission.
Each team's defense responded in the second half, as the first goal did not come until 3:59 left in the third, as Oppito scored his second of the day to give Manhattan a 10-6 edge.
However, Marist responded with three straight goals over the next seven minutes to cut the deficit to a single goal (10-9) with 9:46 left in regulation. Otto's second goal of the day proved to be the game-winner, giving Manhattan breathing room at 11-9, and after Marist cut it to 11-10 with 3:01 remaining, the Jasper defense held strong and Manhattan held on for the win.
Justin Henry made five saves in net for Manhattan and picked up his second straight victory and his third win of the season.
The Jaspers return to MAAC action on Saturday, April 9, when they will travel to Lexington, VA to take on VMI. Game time is slated for 1:00 p.m.
