RIVERDALE, NY – Junior Chris Daly (Wynnewood, PA/Lower Merion) scored four goals, three of which coming in the first half, and added an assist to lead the Monmouth University men's lacrosse team to a 10-5 victory over Manhattan College, Saturday afternoon at Gaelic Park. The Hawks (5-3), who had eight different players register a point, never trailed as they claim their first Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference victory of the season.
“The staff and I are proud of how hard we played this afternoon,” commented head coach Brian Fisher. “The effort, energy and excitement was contagious and once we settled into the game we began to play well.”
Monmouth, which outshot the Jaspers 29-10 in the opening half, got on the board 1:19 into the game when the reigning MAAC Rookie of the Week Eamon Campbell (Massapequa, NY/St. Anthony's) set up Daly for his first of three first-half goals to put MU ahead 1-0. Manhattan won the ensuing faceoff and Parker Giarrantana capitalized on the possession, evening the score at 1-1. Bryce Wasserman (Southlake, TX/Grapevine Faith) fired a shot to the back of the net with 2:01 left in the opening quarter to start a five-goal run for the Hawks. Dylan Schulte (Southampton, NJ/Seneca/Bridgeton Academy) took a feed from Eric Berger (Ardsley, PA/Penn Charter) and scored with 14 ticks left to allow the Blue and White to enter the second quarter with a two goal advantage, 3-1.
Over the first 11 minutes of the second frame, MU increased its lead behind a pair of goals from Daly and a marker from Schulte before Manhattan halted the run with a goal from Alex Abiog 4:31 before the break.
Following intermission, Campbell, who earned his first collegiate start, extended his goal streak to five games scoring off a pass from Wasserman to put the Hawks up five, 7-2. Abiog scored again for Manhattan nearly two minutes later, but Monmouth answered with two goals within the first five minutes of the fourth quarter from Daly and Steve Murawski (Marlton, NJ/Cherokee) to push the lead to six. Cole Johnson and Abiog scored for the Jaspers to pull within 9-5 with 5:30 left, but Berger capped off the scoring with 3:36 left with a goal off a pass from John Castellano (Eastchester, NY/Iona Prep/Curry College).
"Manhattan does a nice job keeping you off balance with a lot of different actions and while we were not perfect today, we handled the moment pretty well and responded each time they got some momentum,” added Fisher.
Goalkeeper Nick Hreshko turned away four shots to claim the victory, while his counterpart Michael Zingaro made 10 saves in the losing effort.
For the game, Monmouth outshot Manhattan 40-26 and was successful in 13 of its 14 clear attempts.
The Blue and White return to action next Saturday, April 2nd when it takes on Canisius in Buffalo, NY. The contest with the Golden Griffins is slated for 1 p.m.
