Poughkeepsie, NY (May 6, 2005)- After being down 8-1 at halftime, Manhattan closed to within 10-6 after three quarters and eventually whittled the Mount St. Mary's lead to 12-10 with 6:10 remaining in regulation. However, Mount scored the next goal and ultimately captured a 13-11 decision in a riveting semifinal in the 2005 MAAC Championships.
Justin Otto and
Greg Lewis had three goals each for the Jaspers, while Mount's Matt Warner had a game-high seven goals.
Manhattan got on the board first, when
Chris Oppito found
Christian Schaefers cutting to the net at the 12:38 mark to give the Jaspers a 1-0 lead. After over seven minutes without a goal on either side, the Mount offense erupted with four goals in the final 5:07 of the first quarter, including three from Warner.
Mount kept up its high-scoring pace in the second quarter, scoring on a man-up goal 20 seconds into the stanza, and scoring three more times to widen its lead to 8-1 as the teams went into intermission. Warner scored two more goals during the quarter to give him five at halftime, while Jason Werner assisted on three of Mount's four goals during the second quarter.
The second half belonged to the Jaspers. Otto got Manhattan going in the third quarter, taking a feed from Oppito and finding the back of the net with 12:08 remaining in the quarter. After Kyle Daddio gave Mount a 9-2 edge, the Jaspers responded with three straight goals of their own.
Jeremy Marrano assisted Lewis on a man-up opportunity at the 7:53 mark, and 22 seconds later,
Brian Murray tallied his first goal of the day to bring Manhattan within five with 7:31 remaining in the quarter.
Sean Crowley then scored at the 4:20 mark to cut the deficit to 9-5. After Mount made it 10-5, Otto took a feed from
Eugene Tanner with three seconds left in the quarter to make the score 10-6 and give Manhattan the momentum heading into the final 15 minutes.
However, Warner quickly halted that momentum, scoring two goals within 20 seconds of each other to give Mount a 12-6 cushion. The Jaspers would not go away, as they scored the next four goals, beginning with consecutive unassisted goals from Lewis, at the 10:09 and 9:38 marks, respectively. Otto then found
Kyle Serbay for his second goal of the season to bring Manhattan within three, and when Tanner found Otto for his third goal of the day at the 6:10 mark, the Jaspers were within two (12-10), the closest they had been since the score was 3-1 late in the first quarter.
Mount's Billy Jautze struck over a minute later, at the 4:35 mark, to make the score 13-10, giving Mount the cushion it needed to fend off the feisty Jaspers.
Brian Murray concluded the scoring on the day on an unassisted goal with two seconds left, making the final margin 13-11 in favor of Mount St. Mary's, which advances to Sunday's MAAC Championship game against the winner of top-seeded Providence and #4 seed Marist.
Justin Henry made six saves in goal for Manhattan, while Mount's Dan Whitehurst stopped 14 shots.
Otto was also named to the All-Tournament Team.
The Jaspers conclude the 2005 season with a record of 7-7 after finishing the MAAC season at 6-2.
