April 23, 2008
Box Score
RIVERDALE, N.Y. - The Saint Joseph's men's lacrosse team went scoreless for 34 minutes in a 7-6 double overtime loss to Manhattan at Gaelic Park.
After one scoreless overtime period, SJU was unlucky to keep the Jaspers off the board. However, that changed in the second period when Manhattan provided the final dagger in SJU's postseason hopes with a sudden-victory winner by Salvatore Spatarella.
Saint Joseph's (4-10, 4-4 MAAC) came out firing building a 4-1 lead behind goals by Chad Dudley, Andrew Mandela, Steve Varga and Chris O'Neill. All the goals were assisted and the players credited with the assists were Alex Lopes, Steve O'Brien, Tom Wengenosky and O'Neill.
Despite SJU's three-goal cushion, Manhattan (5-9, 4-3 MAAC) did not back down. With 10:35 to go in the second period, the Jaspers tallied a goal by Salvatore Sapatarella. On the ensuing face-off, Ryan Tessler took the ground ball the other way to score his first of the year to regain the three-goal advantage just 10 seconds later.
From there on out, it was all Jaspers as Brian Wynne led the way for Manhattan. Goals at 5:09 and 2:44 to go in the second stanza by Wynne brought Manhattan within one. When SJU couldn't convert on a man-up opportunity, the Hawks took a 30-second penalty of their own which led a third straight goal by the Jaspers, tying the game at five apiece going into halftime.
After a harmless and scoreless third period that saw the two respective defenses shine, SJU looked to break a nearly 26-minute scoreless drought in the fourth frame. Nevertheless, Manhattan would be the ones to break its scoring drought, earning its first lead of the game in the fourth period on a Luke Dillilo strike.
Numerous turnovers constantly thwarted attempts find the ever-elusive goal as the Hawks gave the ball to the Jaspers time and time again in the second half. It was not as though Manhattan didn't give the Hawks their own opportunities in the sloppily played game.
With just under seven minutes left in the game, and the Hawks' chances running out, SJU got a break when Manhattan took a cross checking penalty. Varga came to the rescue for the time being with a strike off a Scott Cullinan assist to knot the game at six on the man-up situation and send it into overtime.
SJU will conclude its season on Saturday versus Penn State on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. The game will honor its seniors for Senior Night and also be sponsored by Qdoba, with fans receiving free tacos.
